Located in the Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina has borders with Croatia in the west and north, Serbia in the east, Montenegro in the southeast, and the Adriatic Sea very close in the southwest, with a small border or Croatia separating the two.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is nicknamed the “Heart Shaped Land” due to the country’s slight heart shape.
Majority of the landscape in Bosnia and Herzegovina is mountainous and comprises of areas of karst (limestone).
Tuzla city in Bosnia derives its name from the word “tuz”, the Turkish work for salt. Tuzla’s salt comes from its salt water springs.
Sarajevo, the largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, hosted the 1984 Winter Olympic Games.
The highest peak is Maglic Mountain at 2,386 metres and is found in theSutjeska National Park, the oldest park in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It includes the ancient forest of Perucica and the Sutjeska river canyon.
There are over 700,000 people that are visitors are travel toBosnia and Herzegovina every year. According to the World Tourism Organization, it will have the third highest tourism growth rate worldwide from 1995 to 2020. Attractions include the city of Sarajevo, historical sites, national parks, or the different landscapes, lakes, and waterfalls.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a fertile country and can support growth of wheat, corn, fruits, and vegetables. In the Herzegovina region they grow figs, pomegranates, grapes, kiwis, rose hip, and mandarins. To the Northeast they use more than 50% of the land for agriculture.
Medjugorjeis located in the mountains near Mostar. The small town is incredibly popular with Catholic pilgrims – millions of pilgrims have visited the site since 1981, when a small group of young people in the village began reporting seeing visions of the Virgin Mary on a nearby hillside.
One of the longest rivers of the Balkans is river Tara in Bosnia. Canyon of river Tara is a unique phenomenon in its depth of 1000 and 1300 meters in some places. It ranks just behind the Grand Canyon of Colorado River in the United States. River Tara has its average fall of 3.6m/km, and it makes whole bunch of waterfalls – rapids and cascades which give a big compliment to national park Durmitor, which River Tara belongs to.
Cool, Funny, and Fun Facts about Bosnia and Herzegovina
It has a currency that can’t be exchanged anywhere else in the world. The Bosnian Convertible Mark (BAM) can’t be bought outside the country. So when you arrive you exchange your existing currency or withdraw from the ATM (the hole in the wall). On leaving, it’s exchanged back again or the only use is as an expensive souvenir when you get “back home”.
There are three official languages which are all really the same. Before the terrible conflicts of the 1990’s the language here was known as Serbo-Croatian (with dialects). Today that same language is now either Serbian, Croatian or Bosnian (dependant on your ethnic background). It can be a bit of a minefield (excuse the pun) and can cause stress sometimes, but as a foreigner, all you are told if a perceived mistake is made is “don’t worry, it’s the same language, we all understand each other`’. Proof of the pudding is that the same health warning appears three times on the same cigarette pack!
Bosnia and Herzegovina has the last remaining jungle in Europe at Perućica. It may not be huge being some 6 kilometers long and 1–3 kilometers wide, but with an area of 1,400 hectares, the Perućica forest has many trees that are 300 years old, and the forest’s vintage is stated to be 20,000 years. In some places the forest growth is almost impregnable.
Births and Weddings are still celebrated with “celebratory gunfire”. Huge convoys of cars with flags everywhere, blocking routes to the church and afterwards to the reception. Sometimes in excess of 500 people attend these. Although diminishing, the firing of AK-47 automatic rifles and other weapons in the air prior to and after the event still is common place especially in rural areas. It seems that the logic of what goes up must come down is lost on everyone.
Smoking is almost an Olympic sport. Laws are slowly coming into effect regarding smoking in public places but old habits die hard as they say. If smoking were an Olympic sport Bosnia and Herzegovina could hold its own, even winning against competition from Russia!
The country still has some 200,000 mines to clear. Having said that the country is safe to travel around as long as common sense prevails and local rules obeyed.
Skier Jure Franko won a silver medal – Yugoslavia’s first Winter Olympics medal. Banja Luka is the capital of Srpska Republika (Serbian Republic) part of Bosnia. Tuzla is a large city in the eastern side of the country while Mostar is in the southwest.
When traveling around B&H, you may ask yourself, whose part is this one. The easiest way to find out whether the place belongs to Muslim, Srebs or Croats is to look at the church and its bell-tower.
Danis Tanovićwon in 2002 the Oscar award for the best foreign film, No Man’s Land. This Bosnian writer and director became a celebrity in the international film community practically overnight with the release of his drama about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. No Man’s Land is one of the most highly awarded films in the history of Bosnian cinematography. Numerous awards, 42 in all, include the Golden Globe and an Oscar.
Irfan Skiljancreated in 1996 the first version of IrfanView, one of the most popular viewers worldwide.It is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003. IrfanView was the first Windows graphic viewer worldwide with Multiple (animated) GIF support, one of the first with Multipage TIF support and the first with Multiple ICO support.
Grbavica, a movie byJasmila Žbanić, won the most important prize at the 2006 Berlinale, the Golden Bear. This award belongs to the most respected awards in the world of film, given the fact that the Berlin International Film Festival, which hosts more than 16,000 film professionals from about 80 countries every year, is one of the most important dates on the international film industry’s calendar.