An inselberg is an isolated hill, knob, ridge, outcrop, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. Also known as "monadnock" in the US, or "kopje" in southern Africa.

Connected Sites

Site Rationale Link
Al Ain Jebel Hafeet
Brazilian Atlantic Islands Fernando de Noronha
Canaima National Park The Park's landscape is studded with an archipelago of more than thirty spectacularly isolated inselbergs (UNEP-WCMC)
Central Suriname Nature Reserve Voltzberg Dome
Comoé National Park Contains "rocky inselbergs" (AB ev)
El Pinacate Sierra del Rosario
Garamba National Park “plateau … broken by inselbergs” AB ev
Glacier parks Chief Mountain
Laponian Area Well-developed geomorphological features that illustrate the origin and ongoing processes in the area include monadnocks... (AB ev)
Lopé-Okanda inselberg forests (UNEP-WCMC)
Matobo Hills "The landscape is visually and ecologically distinguished from the surrounding dry savannah. A profusion of distinctive granite landforms, densely packed into a comparatively tight area, rise up to form a sea of hills. Their forms have resulted from the varied composition and alignment of the granites, which responded differently to millions of years of weathering, leaving inselbergs (large individual vertical rocks), kopjes, crenellated ridges, dwalas or hump-backed domes, and what look like randomly heaped boulders." (AB eval)
Namib Sand Sea
Okapi Wildlife Reserve "The inselbergs of the region are a unique habitat which harbor an endemic flora"
Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple "cave-temple complex is established on an inselberg or erosional remnant of importance in the study of the island's geological history" (unesco)
Rio de Janeiro Sugarloaf mountain
Serengeti "The Serengeti plain is punctuated by granite outcroppings known as kopjes. These outcroppings are the result of volcanic activity. Kopjies provide a microhabitat for non-plains wildlife. One kopje likely to be seen by visitors to the Serengeti is the Simba Kopje (Lion Kopje). The Serengeti was used as inspiration for the animated Disney feature film The Lion King and subsequent theatrical production. (Wiki)
Sigiriya Centred on the great Sigiriya rock, a massive monadnock or inselberg rising about 200 metres above the surrounding plain
Taï National Park Mont Niénokoué
Tsodilo Tsodilo is situated in the north-western corner of Botswana near the Namibian border. Its massive quartzite rock formations rise from ancient sand dunes to the east and a dry fossil lake bed to the west. They are therefore called "inselbergs," (Nom File)
Uluru Uluru
Uvs Nuur Basin sculptured granite inselbergs of which Yamaalyg Reserve is one (UNEP-WCMC)
Vegaøyan "A notable and valuable feature of the Vega Archipelago is the wedge-shaped mountains or "monadnocks". There are two of them on the main island of Vega and a third one forms the Island of Sola" (IUCN eval)
Wadi Rum "Hedeib Al-Fala. This is an area of inselbergs at the east end of Khor al Ajram" and "The jordanian Tableland was uplifted ...Ongoing uplift and erosion triggers the collapse of cliff sections and consequent debris on the valley floors, as well as leaving isolated remnants ('inselbergs') of once larger massifs."


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  1. Not be "self evident"
  2. Link at least 3 different sites
  5. Be explained, with reference to a source