Kii Peninsula


The Kii Peninsula is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan. It is named after the ancient Kii Province.
The area south of the “Central Tectonic Line” is called Nanki, and is home to reef-like coral communities which are amongst the northernmost in the world due to the presence of the warm Kuroshio Current, though these are threatened by global warming and human interference. Because of the Kuroshio’s strong influence, the climate of Nankii is the wettest in the Earth’s subtropics with rainfall in the southern mountains believed to reach per year and averaging in the southeastern town of Owase, comparable to Ketchikan, Alaska or Tortel in southern Chile. When typhoons hit Japan, the Kii Peninsula is typically the worst affected area and daily rainfalls as high as are not unknown.
Most of the Kii Peninsula is dense temperate rainforest since the climate even in the very limited lowlands is too wet for agriculture, and much of the coast consists of networks of small rias into which flow very steep and rapid streams characterised by numerous high waterfalls. Forestry and fishing were the traditional economic mainstays of the region and remain important even today despite a declining population and labour force.

Location

occupies much of the area, including the entire southern part. To the northwest of Wakayama Prefecture is Osaka Prefecture, whose southern part is on the peninsula. East of Osaka Prefecture is landlocked Nara Prefecture; farther east is Mie Prefecture.
The Seto Inland Sea lies to the west of the Kii Peninsula. To the south and east is the Pacific Ocean and to the north is the valley of the Kiso Three Rivers and Ise Bay.

Notable places

Notable places in the Kii Peninsula include :
The Kii Peninsula is the location of a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
In 2004, UNESCO designated three other locations on the Kii Peninsula as World Heritage Sites. They are:
  1. Yoshino and Mount Omine, mountainous areas in the north of the peninsula.
  2. Kumano Shrines, three shrines at the southern tip of the peninsula.
  3. Mount Kōya, the mountain at the west of the peninsula

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