Šar Mountain

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Šar Mountain National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
Šar Mountain landscape.
Location:	Macedonia and Serbia
Nearest city:	Prizren
Coordinates:	42°00′″N, 20°44′″E
Area:	39,000 ha
Established:	1986

The Šar mountain (Macedonian and Serbian: Шар Планина, Šar Planina ; Albanian: Malet e Sharrit, Mali i Sharrit, Sharr) is a mountain located on the southern border of Serbia (in Kosovo) and the northwest part of the Republic of Macedonia.

The mountain is around 80 kilometers long, some 10-20 kilometers wide. There are several high peaks:

Titov Vrv (2747 m), the highest peak
Turcin (2702 m)
Borislavec (2662 m)
Rudoka (2610 m)
Ljuboten (2498 m)
Piribeg

The Šar extends to Mount Korab (2764 m) in the southwest, and passes into northeastern Albania.

Vegetation on the mountain includes crops up to around 1000 meters, forests up to 1700 meters, and above that lie high pastures which encompass around 550 square kilometers. The Šar mountain is the largest compact area covered with pastures on the European continent. This mountain is most known as the origin of the dog breed Šarplaninac (Macedonian: Šarplaninec, Albanian: Qeni i Sharrit) which was bred on these pastures.

The Šar National Park is in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and it spreads on 380 square kilometres, on the northern slopes of the Šar. What this national park boasts in particular are the endemic relict Macedonian Pine and white-bark pine, as well as the Alpine rose. As for game, this is the habitat of the lynx, bear, chamois, wolf, roe deer, wild boar and other species.

A locality called "Gine voda" is special attraction because the white-bark pine, Macedonian pine, skotch pine, spruce, sycamore... are represented there all on a small area.

The Šar National Park abounds in streams and small rivers and it spreads in the municipalities of Uroševac, Suva Reka, Kačanik and Prizren (in Kosovo province) and Jegunovce, Tearce, Dzepciste, Tetovo and Gostivar (in the Republic of Macedonia).