Giant's Causeway
Nature
Forty thousand stone columns on the coast of Northern Ireland, most of them six-sided.
On the north coast of Northern Ireland about 40,000 columns of dark stone stand packed together, like a pavement leading into the sea. Most have six sides, so neat that they look made by hand.
They are basalt. About 60 million years ago lava poured out here, and as it slowly cooled it shrank and cracked into columns, the way drying mud cracks into shapes.
- columns
- 40,000
- years old
- 60 million
- the tallest columns
- 12 m
- 1
The legend says the giant Finn McCool built it as a road to Scotland, to fight a giant who lived there.
- 2
The same kind of columns stand across the sea on the Scottish island of Staffa. That is the other end of the giant's road, the story goes.
- 3
Not every column has six sides: some have four, five, seven or eight.
Question 1 of 2
Read about the United Kingdom