Monte San Giorgio
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- May–September
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A wooded pyramid beside Lake Lugano, Monte San Giorgio holds the world's finest fossil record of Triassic marine life. Around 240 million years ago a tropical lagoon lay here, partly sealed from the open sea by a reef; its fine sediments entombed marine reptiles, fish, ammonites and crustaceans, together with insects and plants washed in from nearby land. The Swiss side of the mountain was inscribed by UNESCO in 2003, and the World Heritage Site was extended onto the Italian slopes in 2010.
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