The protected area covers some 685 km², consisting of a central uninhabited zone comprising seven valleys: Roya, Bévéra, Vésubie, Tinée, Haut Var and Cians plus Verdon and Ubaye, and a peripheral zone comprising 28 villages. Many of them are perched villages, such as Belvédère at the entrance to the spectacular Gordolasque valley, concealing great architectural riches. More than 150 rural sites are located within the Park. Around Mont Bégo there are petroglyphs pecked out on schist and granite faces. They have been dated from the late Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
Geography
Valley of marvels
In the heart of this setting of vertiginous summits, lies a gem listed as a Historical Monument, the famous Vallée des Merveilles, the aptly named "". At the foot of Mont Bégo, climbers can admire some 37,000 petroglyphs dating back to the Bronze Age, representing weapons, cattle and human figures that are sometimes very mysterious. A less challenging destination is the Musée des Merveilles at Tende. Enter the route guidance From Nice, take the A8 motorway to Ventimiglia, Italy, then go up the Roya Valley in the direction of Tende. In Saint-Dalmas-de-Tende, village located a few kilometers before Tende, take a road on the left towards the hamlet of Casterino. After 20 minutes by car, we reach the different starting points for hikes. A first car park, at a place called "Lac des Mesches", serves as a starting point for the Vallée des Merveilles. A few kilometers further there will be a lake - , where you will find a parking spot in the end of the road. Few meters after parking spot you will be able to see signs, showing the beginning of route.
In addition to the holm oak, the Mediterranean olive tree, rhododendrons, firs, spruces, Swiss pines and above all larches, the Mercantour is also endowed with more than 2,000 species of flowering plants, 200 of which are very rare: edelweiss and martagon lily are the best known, but there is also saxifrage with multiple flowers, houseleek, moss campion and gentian offering a multi-coloured palette in the spring. The Mercantour is the site of a large-scale All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory and Monitoring programme to identify all its living species, organised by the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy.
Fauna
Walkers may easily glimpse a chamois, several thousand of which live in the park and may often hear the whistling of marmots. The ermine is rarer, as is the ibex and the mouflon, although with a little luck you may be able to observe them during the coolest parts of the dayin the summer. There is a tremendous variety of wildlife in the Mercantour: red deer and roe deer in the undergrowth, hares and wild boars, partridges, golden eagles and buzzards, numerous species of butterflies and even about 50 Italian wolves. A Wolves Centre welcomes visitors in Saint-martin-Vésubie.
