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The Lazareva Reka canyon, located about 10 kilometres from the city of Bor, is the deepest and the longest canyon in eastern Serbia. Due to the steepness of its rocky sides, it still hasn’t been completely explored. Canyon is famous for its numerous caves and pits. The most famous of them are Lazar’s cave (also known as Zlotska), Vernikica, Dubasnicka pit (all these caves fall into a separate destination, “Zlot caves”). The entire canyon is government protected and, due to its unique beauty, as well as its abundant flora and fauna, poses a challenge for all those in love with wilderness and untouched nature.
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Lazar’s canyon was created by a river with the same name. In Turkish times, it used to be one of the most popular hiding places of highwaymen from the area of Homolje. Entering the canyon meant salvation for the highwaymen, since Turks never dared to follow them there. A legend has it that, after the Marica battle in 1371, the paladins of king Lazar came to this area, spending some time there, thus the name of the canyon.
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You can reach the city of Bor by bus from Belgrade. There are five daily buses connecting Belgrade and Bor, leaving Belgrade at 10.30 am, 02.15 pm, 03.15 pm, 04.00 pm and 05.30 pm. Ticket price depends on the company, but it averages around 8 euros.
Zlot village is located about 18 kilometers from Bor. It can be reached by car taking the road that goes over Brestovacka Banja, or by one of the buses that operate between Zlot and Bor on daily basis.
There is also a regular bus line connecting Bor and Borsko lake.
All the interesting places can be reached on foot, starting from the village of Zlot.
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Lazar’s canyon, 6 kilometres long and between 300 and 500 meters wide, is the longest canyon in eastern Serbia. It is cleft into a limestone massif of South Kucaj mountain, and the Lazars river flows through it. It is sheltered by rocky mountain reefs from all sides: to the south and southwest there is Malinik (1087 m), to the north Strnjak (720 m) and Kornjet (696 m) and to the west there are Pogara (883 m) and Mikulja (1022 m). Canyon sides are vertical and smooth, and in its narrowest part the canyon is less than seven meters wide.
The canyon is rather inaccessible: there are no hiking paths, and you can’t descend any of the steep rocky sides. Ancient forests of oak, beech and hornbeam make this venture even more complicated, and only the experienced mountaineers with the right equipment dare to challenge the canyon. Forests are inhabited by wild boars, wolfs and bears, and gray eagles, hawks and falcons can often be seen cruising the sky above the canyon.
Canyon has a lot of caves, most famous being Lazareva and Vernikica, together known as “Zlot caves”, covered in the separate section of this web site.
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