The most popular and most visited place in the easternmost part of the Slovenský kras is the National Nature Reserve Zádielska tiesňava. Zádielska tiesňava always wins enquiries carried out among tourists when they are asked which of the Slovak valleys they consider the most romantic.

The length of the narrow is 2,200 m, its depth is 300 m (in places even 400 m) and the narrowest places in its bottom are only 10 m wide. It hardly accommodates the old asphalt road. It is deeply incised into the white limestone rock in the karstic plateaux of the Slovenský kras.

The conspicuous 105 metres rock attracts the glances of visitors. Its shape inspired its name - Cukrová homoľa (Sugar Cone).

The extreme form of the valley is the source of a special microclimatic inversion observable in it. This inversion provoked the vegetation inversion - Carpathian plant associations that prefer cool and moist biotopes grow in its bottom. In turn, the thermophilous Pannonian plants grow in the warm and dry sections of the valley.

Zádielska dolina is protected under the scheme of the National Nature Reserve. Instructive path crosses the valley. It is divided into sections in order to show both the bottom and the rock edges of the valley to tourists. The routes offer multiple wonderful views - perhaps the best in Slovakia.

Source: Vydavateľstvo DAJAMA