The Gorges du Verdon, a canyon dug by the river Verdon, separate the Pre-Alps of Castellane and the Pre-Alps of Digne, in France.
Visited each year by hundreds of thousands of tourists, they are narrow and deep, 250 to 700 metres deep and 6 to 100 metres wide at the level of the Verdon River and 200 to 1,500 metres from one side to the other at the top of the gorges.
The Verdon has its source very close to the Col d'Allos, in the Trois Evêchés massif (2,819 m) and flows into the Durance near Vinon-sur-Verdon after having travelled nearly 175 kilometres.
Part of its course between Castellane and the Pont du Galetas bridge is now located on the Sainte-Croix lake, which a few decades ago was the great plain of Les Salles-sur-Verdon, before the artificial lake created by the construction of the Sainte-Croix dam was flooded.
Before the rising waters in 1973, the new village of Les Salles-sur-Verdon was built higher and more modern, the old village of Les Salles being evacuated, its church blown up like the old village.
Between 1929 and 1975, five dams were built on the course of the Verdon, between Saint-André-les-Alpes and Gréoux-les-Bains.
These dams correspond to as many water reservoirs:
- the lake of Castillon with engulfment of the village of the same name,
- Chaudanne's Restraint
- the lake of Sainte-Croix with the engulfment of the village of Les Salles-sur-Verdon, the Roman bridge known as the Aiguines bridge, the Garuby bridge and the resurgence of Fontaine l'Evêque in Bauduen. It is one of the largest artificial lakes in France.
- the Quinson reservoir, sometimes improperly named "lac de Montpezat", after the village that dominates it,
- Lake Esparron.
The Verdon gorges are reputed to form the most beautiful canyon in Europe, and attract many tourists, especially during the summer period.
Isidore Blanc was the initiator of local tourism by developing the existing paths to make them accessible to hikers.
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