Pelješac

With its 384km2, Pelješac is the second biggest peninsula in Croatia.

Composition of the soil indicates that it once was an island.

The climate is Mediterranean with an average summer temperature of 25 degrees and 9 during the winter. The plant life is diverse, and there are plenty of animals to be seen. One of the more famous animal is a mammal "Čagalj", a type of jackal.

Due to fertile soil and plenty of sunlight grapes and olives have been grown here for centuries and local people work in their vineyards producing their own wines. Along Pelješac there stretch numerous vineyards, most of them belonging to the indigenous sort of "Plavac mali" one of the most famous wines in Dalmatia.

The name "Pelješac" derives from old Illyrian, meaning "water". On Pelješac, near the village Nakovana is a cave with the same name. The cave is an archeological dig of an old Illyrian shrine found in 1999. The oldest fragments found date as far back as the neolithic, some 6000 B.C. The finds imply that the inhabitants were farmers and that they lived in small, house communities. It is believed that the shrine was a place where they came to worship the gods of fertility.

In the 14th century, as a safety measure from conquerors, a wall was built near the city Ston. The wall measures nearly 4 kilometers in length. There is also the famous saltern in Ston that was built in the time of the Republic of Dubrovnik.

Because of its long maritime tradition, Orebić is also known as the "Cradle of Captains".