Citadelle-des-Collines—Monts-d’Annabeth National Park
Citadelle-des-Collines—Monts-d’Annabeth National Park Parc national de la Citadelle-des-Collines et des Monts d’Annabeth (French) | |
|---|---|
 The rolling hills of the Monts d'Annabeth in summer | |
| Map of the Park Map of the Park | |
| Location | Beauséjour—Les Monts d'Annabeth Canton, Hartly Prefecture and Notre-Dame-de-la-Bonaventure Canton, Doval Prefecture, Linack, Ainin |
| Type | National park |
| Establishment | June 5, 1855 |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,257.2 km2 (485.4 sq mi) |
Citadelle-des-Collines—Monts-d’Annabeth National Park (French: Parc national de la Citadelle-des-Collines et des Monts d’Annabeth), literally meaning "National park of the citadel of the hills and the mountains of Annabeth", is the oldest national park in Ainin and one of the oldest in Esquarium. Covering an area of 1,257.2 square kilometres, it's split between two prefectures, Hartly and Doval, and makes up a majority of Beauséjour—Les Monts d'Annabeth Canton, with a southern tip lying in Notre-Dame-de-la-Bonaventure Canton, part of Doval. Due to its proximity to the "Gateway to Ainin", the park is Ainin's most heavily visited, with an estimated 3.5 million people visiting it yearly.
The park is roughly evenly split between an east sector covering the large hills and valleys of the park, and a west sector consisting mostly of large old growth forests, with the Doval River serving as the bisecting line. The park's more-or-less rectangular borders are delimited to the north by the Bonséjour River, the northwest by Aininian Autoroute 4, the southwest by the Otter River, the southeast by an arbitrary line drawn by Parliament in 1802 named the Mireille-Cartier Line, and the east by the border of the historical Davien Prefecture, dissolved in the 15th century.
The eastern hills, named the Hills of Annabeth (French: Monts d'Annabeth), are a relatively small mountain range that geologists believe were formed roughly the same time as the significantly larger Salter Mountains 200 kilometres to the east, that tower above Linack and form part of the Great Aininian Mountains, formed in the early Neoproterozoic era during the Saint Martin orogeny that shaped modern Southwestern Esquarium's geology. The western forests are the largest forest conserved in roughly its natural state in Southern Linack, the others having been decimated by urbanisation. A major landmark of the park is the Citadel of the Hills (French: Citadelle des Collines), a 13th century military fort used by the Western Delan Kingdom and then the Glorious Confederation. Abandoned in the 1630s with the fall of the Confederation, the forest reclaimed the area around the fort, creating an iconic structure isolated in a clearing between thick tree growth.