Place · region

Landes forest

Also known as Landes of Gascony

The Landes forest is a vast pine forest in south-west France, covering about a million hectares of the Landes of Gascony between the Gironde and the Adour. Until the 19th century the region was mostly sandy heath and marsh, grazed by shepherds on stilts. Drainage and planting of maritime pines, made law in 1857, turned it into the largest man-made forest in Western Europe.

Landes forest
Image: Larrousiney · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Vasates

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Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Landes forest. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/landes-forest
MLA
“Landes forest.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/landes-forest. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Landes forest.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/landes-forest.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Landes forest’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/landes-forest (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻