Kravica Waterfall

Kravica is a broad amphitheatre of falling water in the karst country of Herzegovina. The Trebižat River, after crossing a dry, stony landscape, spills over a curved barrier of tufa about 25 metres high in many separate streams and curtains, into a wide green pool roughly 120 metres across. The fringe of trees and moss along the rim, and the mist rising from the basin, make it look less like a single waterfall than a whole wall of cascades.

The barrier itself is a living formation. Tufa is a porous limestone that builds up where water rich in dissolved calcium carbonate splashes over moss and plants, so the edge of the falls is slowly being made by the river itself rather than cut by it. A small grotto near the falls holds stalactites of the same mineral. In spring, when the river is high, the surrounding countryside turns a vivid green and the volume of water is at its greatest.

The site has long been part of local life. An old water mill still stands near the falls, a reminder that the river's power was put to work long before visitors came for the view, and the land around the waterfall once belonged to Zaim-beg Selimić, a landowner and benefactor from nearby Ljubuški. Kravica is protected as a natural monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Getting there

Kravica lies on the Trebižat about 10 km south of Ljubuški. Mostar is about 26 km away in a straight line, or around 40 km by road. The nearest airport is Mostar International Airport (OMO), about 24 km away in a straight line.