A TOURIST BROCHURE
OF THE
PIVKA VALLEY

Pivka marks the place where our school stands. The town got its name from the river Pivka, which runs through it, so that even the wider area around the town is called the Pivka Valley or Basin. The Pivka Valley is a karst world surrounded by high plateaux, such as Snežnik, Javorniki and Nanos. Towards the southeast the world of the Pivka Valley passes into the low Reška valley. As is the case where-ever limestone be found, there exist certain karst fenomena in our region, such as: funnel-shaped holes, sink holes, underground rivers, intermittent lakes and underground caves. Underground caves are the most interesting fenomena for tourists. They are formed by rivers that flow underground. It was in this way, that the river Pivka formed the world-known Cave of Postojna. However, there are still other caves in the vicinity: Pivka Cave, Otoška Cave, and The Black Cave. The intermittent rivers are another interesting sight for visitors. They appear in the autumn, during the rainy season and remain above the surface for a certain period of time. In our region Lake Petelinje stays on the surface the longest and Lake Palčje is the biggest of these lakes. Altogether there are 27 intermittent lakes in our region, but they appear only when there is a lot of rain, as there was in the autumn of the year 2000. People have also contributed to the natural beauty around them. They invite the visitors to our region to see the Castle of Predjama, the tourist farms with traditional culinary specialities, the ranch 'Plama' where they raise horses, the Castle at Kalc, where our patriot Miroslav Vilhar lived, and the church at Tabor filled with beautiful frescoes. We also have a tourist circle at our school that has been active for quite a few years now. In it we try to raise the students' awareness of the importance of tourism in our region and country.