Chaos de Nîmes-le-Vieux

Useful Information

Location:	L'Hom, 48400 Fraissinet-de-Fourques. (44.225326, 3.511331)
Open:	no restrictions. [2023]
Fee:	free. [2023]
Classification:	Limestone Pavements Stone Forests Bare Karst
Light:	n/a
Dimension:	A=1,100 m asl.
Guided tours:	self guided, L=4.9 km, VR=130 m, D=2 h.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Chaos de Nîmes-le-Vieux, L'Hom, 48400 Fraissinet-de-Fourques.
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History

1908	discovered by Paul Arnal, pastor at Vebron.

Description

photography — Chaos de Nîmes-le-Vieux, France. Public Domain.

The Chaos de Nîmes-le-Vieux is a stone forrest and limestone pavement on the Causse Méjean. It is protected by the Cévennes National Park. The trailhead is located at the farm L'Hom. There is a 4 km long trail between Hom and Gally, developed by the Parc National des Cévennes (Cévennes National Park).

The stone forrest was discovered in 1908 by Paul Arnal, pastor at Vebron, who named it in analogy with the Chaos of Montpellier-le-Vieux, which was famous due to the publications by Edouard Alfred Martel 20 years earlier. Martel heard about the discovery and explored it. In 1910, he published an article about the place in the magazine Causses et Cévennes.

«Des hameaux du Veygalier et de l'Hom jusqu'à la Borie de Galy et à la Fontaine d'Aures, il se développe à l'altitude moyenne de 1 100 m sur près de 4 km d'étendue. C'est un front de falaises, un ressaut de la surface du causse Méjean, qui présente une grande longueur de demi-cirques, tous hérissés de centaines de rocs dolomitiques, troués, taillés, sculptés...»
"From the hamlets of Veygalier and Hom to the Borie de Galy and the Fontaine d'Aures, it develops at an average altitude of 1,100 m over an area of nearly 4 km. It is a front of cliffs, a projection of the surface of the Méjean causse, which presents a great length of semicircles, all bristling with hundreds of dolomitic rocks, perforated, cut, sculpted..."
Edouard Alfred Martel, 1910, Causses et Cévennes.