Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park

Ordesa y Monte Perdido sits in the Pyrenees and has been protected since 1918, when the national park covered only the Ordesa Valley itself. The protected area was enlarged in 1982 to take in the whole region, some 156 square kilometres, and UNESCO added it to the Ordesa-Viñamala Biosphere Reserve in 1997. In the same year it became part of the cross-border Pyrénées–Mont Perdu World Heritage Site, listed for its geological landforms. It is IUCN Category II. The valley walls are the draw, glacial troughs and cirques on a scale unusual this far south, and the high routes are a summer proposition.