Velebit (Italian: Alpi Bebie) is the largest though not the highest mountain range in Croatia. Its highest peak is the Vaganski Vrh at 1757 m.
The range forms a part of the Dinaric Alps and is located along the Adriatic coast, separating it from Lika in the interior. Velebit begins in the northwest near Senj with the Vratnik mountain pass and ends 145 km to the southeast near the source of the Zrmanja river reasonably near Knin.
The important characteristic of Velebit are its simple, solid form, stiff cliffs, and the nakedness of seaward side and the wood-covered slopes of the Lika side. The basic geological characteristic of the mountains is karst; flora and fauna are abundant. The most popular spots on Velebit are: the peak of Vučjak, above Zavižan, the botanical gardens on Zavižan, Rožanski kukovi, Štirovača and the Paklenica National Park.
Velebit is usually divided into four regions:
Velebit as a whole is a nature park, from which two national parks have been carved out: Paklenica and Sjeverni Velebit.
A further category of even more careful nature preservation exists within Sjeverni Velebit, the special reservation Hajdučki i Rožanski Kukovi, under the highest nature protection available in Croatia. Officially no human activity is allowed there (except research). These are the mostly still unexplored and wild places and probably will stay that way in the future.
A pathway called Premužićeva staza (Premužić's pathway) leads through the northern and middle parts of Velebit. This pathway was built between 1930 and 1933 and it connects northern and southern Velebit. Its length is 50 km. Many parts of Velebit would not be reachable without it. The Velebit mountains are transversed by the A1 through the Sveti Rok Tunnel.
Around 70 peaks exceed 1600m.
There are hundreds of "holes" on Velebit. It has the largest and
deepest caves in Croatia. The
three-part "Lukina jama" cave is 1392 m deep, making it one of the
deepest caves in the world, and the deepest in southeast Europe,
while the "Slovačka jama" is 1320 m. What makes it very particular
is that it is completely vertical, steepest in the world. At the
bottom of the pothole is a water course or siphon with branches
that are still unexplored. A kind of leech was discovered in the
pothole, which has been ascertained to represent a new species,
genus and family; it has been named "Croatobranchus mestrovi".
See Velebit caves.
List of potholes on Velebit, deeper than 500m:
It is also home to Degenia velebitica, an endemic and protected species of plant in the mustard family discovered in 1907 by the Hungarian botanist Àrpàd von Degen.
The imposing nature of the Velebit mountain has made it something of a national symbol in Croatian folklore. There is a patriotic folk song Vila Velebita that personifies a fairy in Velebit.
In older European literature Velebit was known as Montagna della Morlacca. The Venetians called it Morlachia, which derives from the fact that there used to be Morlaks, black (mauros) Latins or black "Vlasi" (Wallachians) shepherds of Romanic origin, living in the Velebit area down to Lake Skadar after the Slavic colonisation. These same shepherds fled from the Turks from Velebit to Krk or into Istria.
Literature about the Velebit that is available includes: