This rarity consists in almost perfectly shaped rock spheres of various sizes from 30 cm to more than 2 m. In the past, the spheres with a diameter of around 3 m, and even a giant 5-meter ball were not an exception, however, only empty rock beds remained in the wall of the former quarry.

Dinosaur eggs, creation of aliens, or "just" a natural formation more than 40 million years old?

The stone spheres were discovered in 1988 when the rock was blasted in a quarry, unfortunately the largest ball with a diameter of up to 5 meters broke in the blast. Originally, there were about 30 balls, but most of them were taken away by to locals as a garden decoration. Some of them were even broken into pieces, as gold was believed to be found inside.

The gold treasure remained just a wishful thought, but the famous Megoňky area still rank among the greatest treasures of Slovakia. Even though the origin of the stone spheres has not been expressly explained by science, the most probable theory says that they could have been formed in the prehistoric sea by gradually wrapping around the core by the movements of the water on the seabed. The site of stone spheres in Megoňky, being the largest of its kind in Europe, is part of a geological complex stretching out to the village of Klokočov, through Korcháň to Megoňky.

However, the whole geological complex contains just two places with the occurrence of sphere formations: Megoňky and Klokočov rocks, other places with such a high concentration of the formations are no longer found there. The uniqueness of this natural phenomenon is proven by the fact that such findings are exceptional on a world scale. Similar findings were discovered only in Costa Rica, New Zealand and in the South American forests. However, the spheres occurring in Megoňky are of the most regular shape among all. The location has thus become an attractive place for tourists from all over the world. In 2019, the city of Čadca in cooperation with the Czech municipality of Mosty u Jablunkova built the MeGoŇky - ŠaNCe Geopark as a part of the Interreg development program.

The park involves a reconstructed quarry, where stone spheres are set to a unique wooden gazebo in the shape of a ball providing its visitors with a nice place to rest. An educational 7.8 km long cycling route connects Megoňky with the neighbouring Czech village of Mosty where the historical monument of Šance-Valy can be found. The local open-air museum offers an exhibition of the reconstructed defense system from the first half of the 16th century.

Autor: OCR Kysuce