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Where in the World is Fingerprint Island?
The little island makes quite the “impression”
For my new series, each week we will visit a new mysterious, extraordinary, enchanting, or just plain interesting place in the world! These are places that I don’t know much about or haven’t heard of at all prior to researching. If you have been to one of these places, please share your story!
Fingerprint Island
Located in the Adriatic Sea, just off the coast of Croatia, sits a tiny island, only 0.14 square kilometers in size. This island is Baljenac (or Bavljenac), commonly known as “Fingerprint Island”.
Its nickname derives from the fact that from overhead, it looks like a giant human fingerprint. Its oval shape mimics the human finger and the “lines” created by rows of stone walls present themselves as fingerprint ridges and furrows. The walls were built and used to create agricultural boundaries on the island. They also acted to protect the crops from high winds that are prominent in coastal areas.
The History
The island is very rocky and in order to begin cultivating its land, farmers first had to pick the rocks out of the soil, which they then used to build the walls. While the island itself is only half a kilometer long, the walls stretch a…
