Kékes

Where is Kékes?

Kékes is part of the Mátra Mountains.

You will find it in: Hungary.

Summit: 47.879° N, 20.010° E

The story behind it

Long ago volcanoes erupted in this part of Hungary, and the Mátra hills are what remains of them. The rock underfoot is andesite, grey and hard, left behind when the lava cooled. Wind and rain have rounded the old cone, so the top is a broad dome covered in beech trees rather than a sharp peak. A tall television mast stands on the summit and can be seen from far across the plain. In winter, snow stays long enough for short ski runs, and in autumn the beech leaves turn copper. Because the countryside around is so flat, the view reaches for many kilometres on clear days. A road leads almost to the top, so families arrive by car or bus, and marked forest paths bring walkers up from the town of Gyöngyös below.

Find it on the globe

Kékes is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.