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The Curonian Spit is a unique natural and anthropogenic landscape and the largest sand body, which has no analogues in the world. Its length is 98 km, the width varies from 400 m to 4 km. The landscapes on the spit vary from desert (sand dunes) to tundra (bogs). The topography and location of the Curonian Spit give reason to call it "bird bridge”. An ancient birds migration route passes along it from Northern to the Southern Europe and to theNorth Africa. Up to 20 million birds fly annually over the spit. More than 70 percent of the territory is covered with forests, where there are about 600 species of trees, shrubs and herbs. Many trees on the spit are slightly curved. A lot of such curved trees is located in the area of "Dancing (or drunk) forest”, where their trunks are bent stronger than the average. The fauna consists of 296 species of terrestrial vertebrates, boars, foxes, deers and others. There is also the oldest in Europe ornithological station, founded by the German theologian and birder Johannes Lineman in 1901.
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