Białowieża Forest

The last great fragment of the primeval lowland forest that once covered much of Europe straddles the border of Belarus and Poland. Across 141,885 hectares, ancient oaks, hornbeams, pines and spruces grow, fall and decay with almost no human interference — conditions that sustain the world's largest population of European bison, the continent's heaviest land mammal. Białowieża Forest was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 and later unified into a single transboundary property.