Valley of Limestone Factory

This is what we saw at about half-way through our climb. Below in the valley are areas of the Rajamandala mountain range that have been mined for their limestone with a limestone processing factory in the middle. Ugliness is creeping in and destroying Bandung's ancient geological heritage.

Pemandangann yang kami lihat di puncak pertama Gunung Masigit, kira-kira di tengah jalan antara Gua Pawon dan Taman Bebatuan (Stone Gardens). Banyak gunung kapur di daerah ini yang telah hancur ditambang. Beberapa puluh tahun ke depan, mungkin kita tak akan dapat lagi menyaksikan kemegahan karst Rajamandala seperti yang masih bisa kita saksikan sekarang.

West Padalarang Karst

A limestone mountain (hill?) or what remains of it of the west Padalarang karst at Citatah. The winding curve you see in the picture is the road used by local miners and mining company to extract or mine limestone.

The west Padalarang karst is located about 22 kilometers to the west of Bandung. The karst has been heavily mined for its limestone and other mineral deposits. It has been the concern of many environmentalists and geologists because of the prehistoric significance this place has in the formation of the Bandung plateau. They are afraid that much of geological and bio-diversity evidence will be lost because of the mining activities.

I am going to tell more about this place at later posts.