Bucegi Natural Park, Protected natural park in Carpathian Mountains, Romania.

Bucegi Natural Park is a protected area in the Southern Carpathians in Romania, covering roughly 32,663 hectares across Prahova, Brașov and Dâmbovița counties. The landscape shifts between limestone walls, deep gorges, caves and alpine meadows, ranging from 800 meters to the summit at 2,505 meters.

The Romanian government established a protected zone in 1974 to limit excessive use of timber and grazing land. In 2000, the area officially received natural park status with expanded measures to protect wildlife and plant life.

The name Bucegi is traced to the Dacian language and is linked to mountain deities worshipped by the pre-Roman inhabitants of the region. The park also holds the Crucea Eroilor Neamului, a cross raised on Caraiman Peak at 2,291 m to honour those who fell in the First World War, visible from far across the Prahova Valley.

You can reach the area through several entry points near Sinaia, Busteni and Moroeni, which lead to marked hiking trails between 500 meters and 16 kilometers long. A cable car from Busteni takes visitors directly to the high plateau, where shorter loop trails begin.

The park's name is often linked to the Dacian word for mountain deities, but the Sphinx and Babele are not the only rock shapes here: the sources also list towers, needles and ledges formed in limestone and crystalline schist. The Sphinx stands on the Bucegi Plateau, and the Babele group sits nearby, both above 2,200 metres.