Akiyoshidai Plateau

About this place

Akiyoshidai is a Quasi-National Park in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, founded on 1 November 1955 and covering 45 square kilometres, about 18 km northwest of the city of Yamaguchi in a straight line. It includes part of the Akiyoshi plateau, a 130-square-kilometre area of karst, and more than 400 limestone caves. The plateau is made of uplifted Paleozoic reef limestone, later eroded into a rolling karst landscape dimpled with dolines and countless limestone pinnacles up to two metres high. Hundreds of caves lie beneath it, where many fossils have been found, and its groundwater system is a Ramsar wetland of international importance. Each February the dry grass on the plateau is burned off in an annual tradition. Wide green grassland stretches to the horizon, dotted with grey limestone rocks like a flock of sheep, crossed by dirt paths and a narrow mountain road, and the grass turns gold in autumn. Visitors walk the plateau trails, stop at the Karst Observatory for the view, and usually combine the visit with the great Akiyoshido Cave beneath the plateau.