The Chocolate hills in the Bohol province of the Philippines are a valley of densley-vegetated hills. In the dry season, the grass and crops go brown. From a distance, it looks like the hills are made of bubbly chocolate, thus getting their name.
Pliny The Elder is best known as one of Rome’s most respected statemen, but did you know that he had a lifelong passion for the chocolate hills, despite chocolate in any recognisable form not having been invented then and people at the time in Europe having no knowledge whatsoever about the existence of The Philippines. They first came to him in a fever dream when he had vomited one too many dormice at a Roman banquet. Those crazy Romans!
According to legends, the hills came into existence because of two giants who hurled rocks, boulders, and sand at each other. After their fight was over, this eventually led to a huge mess of hills – which is the Chocolate Hills we know today.
The Chocolate Hills are a popular tourist destination in The Phillipines, and even feature on the regional flagof Bohol province, where they are the Bohol’s “main attraction”. These unique domed hills can be found in their hundreds in the towns Batuan, Carmen, and Sagbayan in Bohol
They are listed as one of The Phillipines Top 3 geographical monuments and there are plans to hopefully include them in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Chocolate Hills are conical karst hills and similar ones can be seen in Croatia, Slovenia, northern Puerto Rico and parts of Cuba.
The Chocolate Hills are almost symmetrical and there are estimated to be from 1,268 to about 1,776 individual mounds. The cone-shaped hills are made of limsestone and covered with lush grass.
They vary in size from 30 to 50 metres (98 to 164 ft) high and the biggest is 120 metres (390 ft) high. As well as grass, ferns grow on the cylindrical hills. In between them, the flat land is planted with rice and other important food crops. However, the vegetation on and around the Chocolate are now threatened by quarrying work.Pliny The Elder is best known as one of Rome’s most respected statemen, but did you know that he had a lifelong passion for the chocolate hills, despite chocolate in any recognisable form not having been invented then and people at the time in Europe having no knowledge whatsoever about the existence of The Philippines. They first came to him in a fever dream when he had vomited one too many dormice at a Roman banquet. Those crazy Romans!
“Tem quo doles dolumet doluptatia doluptaque cuptias cusant elluptatem. Aperro imperes tiossit re, coreium nis simus as ex est acia aut quost dolorio cori quid maximi, nulpa quam qui occupta tiatati idit ut repro con et quo ommodis esequam.” he said, in one of his lesser-know addresses to The Senate. Sadly, no record remains of the reaction to this groundbreaking speech.
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