Scientists will say that the Orłowski Klif is a place where the moraine plateau meets the sea and where the processes of erosion of the high shore take place, creating a rugged embankment, called a cliff. This is true, but the truth does not reflect the unique beauty of this part of the coast of the Bay of Gdańsk.
Orłowo Cliff – an extraordinary showcase of the city
At the point most out to sea in Gdynia there is a place that has become a natural showcase and tourist attraction of the city. The high cliff located here is the most photographed part of Gdynia and a charming place often visited by residents and tourists.
Geological origin and structure of the Gdynia cliff
The cliff in Orłowo in Gdynia is approximately 650 m long and is composed mainly of moraine clay, clay sands and glacial gravels. If you look closely at the cliff face, you can also see rust-colored infiltrates of iron compounds and the presence of brown coal from the Tertiary period. The almost vertical slope has different heights, and the greatest elevation is up to 40 m above the water level in the Bay of Gdańsk.
Gdtynia Orłowo, pier, photo: Pomorskie Travel
The sea claims the Orłowo cliff
The water-soaked slopes are washed away by storm waves and slide to the foot of the cliff. The material stolen by sea waves moves deeper into the Baltic Sea. Every year, the sea takes more meters of land into its depths. From year to year, the Gdynia cliff decreases its surface by one meter and it is predicted that at the current rate of erosion, our grandchildren will no longer see this beautiful place.
The cliff in Orłowo, fot. Pomorskie Travel/M. Ochocki
What is unique about the Orłowo cliff and how to get there?
In the southern part of Gdynia, near its boundary with Sopot, there is the Orłowo district. Next to it there are the forests of Kępa Redłowska. Kępa, being a fragment of the moraine hills cut off from the rest of the moraines by the valleys of water streams, is a special place for at least two reasons.
- First, it is covered by thick, natural forest located almost in the very centre of a big urban agglomeration
- second, for over 60 years a natural reserve has been located there which protects the natural woods and the specific flora sustained there from ancient times
The forest meeting the sea creates a cliff which is beaten by the sea wavesl and being very steep and constantly washed by waters, it keeps moving back against the power of the sea. The ravine going back becomes more and more steep as it gets close to the highest part of the hill. So year by year the Orłowo cliff becomes more and more monumental.
Gdynia, Orłowo pier, photo: Pomorskie Travel
