Fuji-san, Japan's King Volcano

The great Mount Fujior Fuji-san, as its known in Japanis one of the worlds most famous mountains
and may be the most frequently limbed of the planet!s snowpeaks" # stunningly symmetrial
strato$olano, Fuji is an ion of the Tokyo skyline and an internationally reogni%able symbol of Japan as
a whole"
&ummited by thousands of enthusiasti pilgrims e$ery year and the highlight of Japan tours of all kind,
Mount Fuji is a mar$el' both one of the most beautiful mountains on (arth and one of the most belo$ed"
The Mountain
Mount Fuji belongs to the )aifi *ing of Fire, that %one of ati$e tetoni turmoil and plentiful $olani
ati$ity fringing the )aifi basin" The $olanoes and geothermal features of the +amhatka )eninsula in
the *ussian Far (ast and the many ioni snowpeaks of the ,asade *ange in the )aifi -orthwest of
the .nited &tates are other *ing of Fire landmarks"
/hile the laypersons eye diserns but one peak, Mount Fuji is atually an amalgam of some three
different $olanoes of differing ages and geologial omposition' the oldest, +omitoke, on the bottom,
mantled by +o Fuji or 01ld Fuji2 and ultimately the modern fire mountain, &hin Fuji or 0-ew Fuji"2
#ording to the &mithsonian 3nstitutions 4lobal 5olanism )rogram, -ew Fuji gained most of its mass
between 66,777 and 8,777 years ago $ia prolifi la$a flows"
*elati$ely reent basalti emissions off the mountain dammed streams in the Misaka Mountains just to
the north, forming the famous Fuji Fi$e 9akes" These stunning, enormously popular water bodies
+awaguhi, Motosu, &ai, &hoji, and :amanakaare herished by $isitors on Japan tours for the $iews of
Fuji-san they help memorably ompose"
Mount Fujis most reent onfirmed major eruption ame at the dawn of the 68
th
entury, a 6;7; e$ent that
bore the $olanos latest flankside rater and sprinkled ash o$er Tokyo"
Fuji-san, World Heritage Site
3n <76=, the .nited -ations (duational, &ientifi, and ,ultural 1rgani%ation >.-(&,1? added Fuji-san
to its /orld @eritage 9ist, an in$entory of the globe!s natural and ultural wonders" /hile the geologial
and eologial attributes of the $olano are outstanding, .-(&,1s profile fouses mainly on its long-
standing signifiane to human beings as a soure of spiritual, artisti, and ultural inspiration"
3mportant in Japans indigenous religion, &hintoism, as well as in Auddhism, Mount Fuji also figures in
ountless works of Japanese artnone of them more famous than @okusais 0Thirty-&iB 5iews of Mount
Fuji2 woodblok prints"
# magnet to pilgrims and mountaineers both, an impossible-to-ignore symbol of Japans $olatile geology,
an aesthetially perfet mountainFuji-san is many things to many people, and also, like any grand peak,
wholly itself"
For more details' http'CCen"toureast"om
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6" http'CCwww"britannia"omC(AhekedCtopiC<<6D<;CMount-Fuji
<" http'CCwww"$olano"si"eduC$olano"fmE$nF<8=7=7
=" http'CCwh"uneso"orgCenClistC6G68