Forest of Halatte

The Forest of Halatte in Picardy is one of the largest remaining blocks of natural old-growth forest in France. Situated in the département of Oise near Senlis and Pont-Sainte-Maxence, it currently encompasses 43 square kilometres (17 sq mi). Together with the Forest of Chantilly and the Forest of Ermenonville it forms the Massif des Trois Forêts. On the north it borders the Forest of Compiègne. Halatte is still a source of oak and beech timber. The forest, a fragment separated from the ancient Silva Cotia (forêt de Cuise) cited in the 6th century CE, which became the Forest of Compiègne, bears numerous traces of its prehistoric habitation, in the form of menhirs and dolmens and late Iron Age burials. In the commune of Ognon are the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to a curative deity, built in the mid-1st century CE and abandoned during the 4th century. The temple's stones were then quarried for reuse, and the site became overgrown by the forest. the temple was discovered and excavated in 1873-74 and more professionally examined in 1996–99.