Chocolate Hills in Bohol

The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. They look like giant mole hills and remind us of the hills in a small child's drawing. Most people who see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact.

There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as many as 1,766 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometers. They are covered in green grass that turns brown (like chocolate) during the dry season, hence the name.

The chocolate hills form a rolling terrain of haycock hills - mounds of a generally conical and almost symmetrical shape. Estimated to be from 1,268 to about 1,776 individuals mounds, these cone-shaped or dome-shaped hills are actually made of grass-covered limestone. The domes vary in sizes from 30 to 50 meters high with the largest being 120 meters in height. 

Legends has it that hills came into existence when two giants threw stones and sand at each other in a fight that lasted days. When they were finally exhausted, the made friends and left the island, but left behind the mess they made.

For the more romantically inclined is the tale of Arogo, a young and very string giant who fell in love with an ordinary mortal girl called Aloya. After she died, the giant Arogo cried bitterly. His tears then turned into hills, as a lasting proof of his grief.

However, up to this day, even geologists have not reached consensus on how they were formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of a impermeable layer of clay. If you climb the 214 steps to the top of the observation hill near the complex, you can read this explanation on a bronze plaque.