The Kornati, archipelago of Croatia is located in the northern part of Dalmatia, south from Zadar and west from Šibenik.With 35 kilometres (22 miles) length and 140 islands, some large, some small, in a sea area of about 320 square kilometres (124 sq mi), the Kornati are the densest archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea.
From northwest to southeast (from the island of Balabra to Samograd), and from northeast to southwest (from Gangarol to Mana) they stretch for 13 km (8 miles). The name of the archipelago is the plural form of the name of the largest island, called Kornat.
Kornati islands can be divided into two main groups – the Gornji Kornati or Upper Kornati, closer to the mainland, and the Donji Kornati or Lower Kornati.
By their origin, the manner of formation, the geological structure and th kinds of soil, the relief of the Kornat islands is not essentially different from the other Adriatic islands, particulary the neighbouring ones. But it is only here that we come upon a type of littoral which does not exist in any other part of the Adriatic. It is the steeply cut coast facing the open sea. This exceptional configuration is referred to as kruna (crown) in the local idiom of the islanders, and as klif (cliff) or strmac (steep, sheer) among scholars and in the media. The crowns were created by a tectonic fault when parts that were exposed to the open sea broke off and disappeared under the sea. The Kornati “crowns” are not interesting only because of their beauty, but also because of the particular life forms that inhabit them. On the part of the “crowns” that rises above the sea level there live special and rare types of organisms adjusted to extreme life conditions such as strong blasts of the sea and wind, high concentration of salt, washouts, lack of soil and water, and strong sun.