The Sahara of Lithuania
Legends of the Curonian Spit
In the Time of Legends, there was harmony on the thin tongue of land known today as the Curonian Spit. Giants and sand dunes lived in harmony with each other.
Then came along one Giant girl named Neringa. She was disobedient and did not follow the laws, stepping all over the sacred sites with her huge feet. This upset the dunes and they became agitated, mobilizing and moving around the land. They smothered forests and crushed Giant towns alike in their rage against Neringa, and the world was forever changed.
This corridor of forest, dunes, and small towns, not more than a few kilometers wide, is today an idyllic summer vacation destination in Lithuania. It is bordered on the west by the Baltic Sea, on the east by the Curonian Lagoon, and separated from mainland Lithuania at Klaipėda by a narrow strait. It extends for 52 kilometers from there in an arc, paralleling the mainland, to the border at Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. It is a World Heritage Site.
It wasn’t always a holiday paradise. From the first records of habitation up to the 20th century, life here was often harsh. The sand dunes of legend were indeed mobile, burying houses and blocking roads during the long months of howling winter winds out of the Baltic Sea. House doorways were constructed in two parts that split horizontally, such…
