Otlica (pronounced[ˈoːtlitsa]) is a dispersed settlement in the hills north of Ajdovščina in the Littoral region of Slovenia. It is made up of smaller clusters of the hamlets of Sibirija, Kitajska, Kurja Vas (Slovene: Kurja vas), and Cerkovna, as well as a number of outlying isolated farms.[2]
Geography
Otlica is located on the high Trnovo Forest Plateau (Slovene: Trnovski gozd), overlooking the Vipava Valley. The part of the larger plateau known as the Otlica Plateau (Slovene: Otliška planota) is named after Otlica.[3] Together with the ridge-top villages of Predmeja, Kovk, and Gozd, it is part of an area locally known as Gora (literally, 'the mountain').[4]
Names
The name Otlica is derived from the Slovene adjective otel 'hollow'. It refers to a karst sinkhole about 500 meters (1,600 ft) west of Navrše Hill (elevation 500 meters, 1,600 ft); the bottom of the sinkhole leads to the opposite side of the Gora Ridge through a passage 20 meters (66 ft) high and 15 meters (49 ft) wide that opens above a footpath to Ajdovščina. In folk tradition the mountain was therefore referred to as being hollow.[5][6] The hamlet of Siberija (literally, 'Siberia') is so named because of its exposure to the frost and the bora wind, and the hamlet of Kitajska (literally, 'China') is a reference to the large number of children that people living there had.[7]
