Dunes

Dunes

The fluffy soft seaside dunes, glistening like white gold, are the handiwork of a giant lass. The giant lass, called Neringa, was special, beautiful and famous for her good deeds. However, she decided that she would marry only someone, who could throw a stone over the lagoon. There was one lad, who managed to do that. This made Bangpūtys, the good of the sea and waves, very angry and he created a huge storm. The storm reached the villages, threatening to take people’s lives and homes. Then Neringa started pouring sand along the sea, thus creating a barrier for the waves. The heaps of sand that she poured turned into the dunes that we see today.
Dunes are the hills of sand, brought by the wind, formed along the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. Dunes can also be formed in sandy lakesides, riversides or deserts.
The wind, carrying the sand, keeps reshaping dunes all the time. Just a couple of hundred years ago the people, who had settled near dunes, were forced to move, when drifting sand started burying their settlements. Drifting sand has buried several villages on the Curonian Spit and was stopped only, when it was decided to bring plants to reinforce the dunes.

Dunes