Kalkot Gorge

The Kalkot Gorge is a reach of the River Wiyel in Sekalkot province in central Ororr. Over millions of year the river has carved a deep channel into the surrounding karst rock, creating a high-sided gorge stretching hundreds of kilometres through an otherwise arid landscape.

In the lower reaches the gorge is a wide valley with gently sloping sides, while upper reaches with harder rock form a narrow canyon with precipitous cliffs. The gorge stretches for over 250 km, from the Upper Wiyel below Seqot, to just above the city of Ayetua on the Red Wiyel.

Historically the gorge has been an important centre of human civilisation, since despite the challenging environment the river banks made easily defensible settlements with little encroachment by wild virid plants or animals. In ancient times the gorge was also an important source of jade, valued for stone tools as well as jewellery and ceremonial objects. The city of Seqal was for many thousands of years its cultural and political capital, but today Seqot is far larger and more prosperous.

The surrounding landscape of the gorge is mainly arid plains, with greenplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigGreen

The Green Kingdom of flora and fauna includes humans, mammals, birds, whales, greenfish, and most green plants and crops cultivated by humankind. vegetation covering the banks on either side of the river. Agricultural crops are grown in flat parts of the valley floor, with terraces cut into the valley sides. These are irrigated by channels fed either by natural springs flowing into the valley, or by wind pumps turning screws that carry water up to higher levels.