Chocolate Hills top world’s unusual places list

CEBU, Philippines - The famous Chocolate Hills in Bohol have been named one of 10 unusual places in the world.

In an article written for Yahoo!’s Budget Travel, Danielle Contray said what made the Choc olate Hills an out-of-this-world place are the more than 1,200 conical hills varying between around 100 and almost 40 feet high.

According to the “God’s Little Paradise” website, the Chocolate Hills are considered Bohol’s most famous tourist attraction.

The website said legend has it that the hills came into existence when two giants threw stones and sand at each other in a fight that lasted for a day.

When they were finally exhausted, they made friends and left the island, also leaving the mess they made.

Another legend has it that Arogo, a young and very strong giant who fell in love with an ordinary mortal girl named Aloya.

After she died, the giant cried bitterly and his tears turned into hills, as a lasting proof of his grief.

Scientists said the Chocolate Hills are weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of an impermeable layer of clay.

However, up to this day, geologists have not reached consensus on how they were formed.

Yahoo!’s list of world’s unusual places includes the Salt Flats in Bolivia, Rio Tinto in Spain, Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, Spotted Lake in British Columbia, Socotra Island in Indian Ocean, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona, Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China and Simpson Desert in Australia. — /LPM (FREEMAN)