Percé Rock

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Percé Rock (French rocher Percé, "pierced rock") is one of the largest and most spectacular natural arches in the world.

It rises sheer from the Gulf of St. Lawrence just off the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec near the village of Percé. It is a massive limestone stack 433 metres (1420 ft) long, 90 metres (296 ft) wide and 88 metres (289 ft) at its highest point. The rock gets its name from a large 15 metre/50ft high arch near its seaward end.

There were actually two arches in the rock, when the outer arch collapsed on June 17, 1845. For four hours at a time during low tide, the water recedes from a wide spit that allows the rock itself to be visited. Percé Rock is a major tourist attraction in Quebec, with picturesque views of the rock from both Percé and nearby Bonaventure Island. It contains millions of marine fossils such as trilobites, tetracoralla, brachiopods and ostracods from the Devonian period.

[edit] Gallery

The village and its rock, taken from nearby Mont-Sainte-Anne.

The village on the mainland to the right, the rock to the left and Bonaventure Island in the background.

The Percé Rock at low tide.

The rock and the Percé cliff.