Geology is a science concerned with the Earth, its origin and evolution, the processes that have shaped it, its composition and structure.

Complex geological activities, which had been occuring during the long evolutionary development included sedimentation, magmatic activities, metamorphic changes and large-scale tectonic movements. However, these activities have continued to affect the geological structure of the Earth till present day.

Although the state of Serbia occupies a rather small territory, in a geological sense, it is an extremely diverse and complex region located at the convergence of large geotectonic units: Dinarides, Vardar zone, Serbian-Macedonian mass, Carpatho-Balkanids and Pannonian basin.

The development of new disciplines during the 20th century has contributed to the fact that, within geological sciences and particularly in the study of geological structure, certain phenomena and profiles are regarded as part of the natural heritage, since they are recognized as geological sites to be conserved due to their scientific, aesthetic, historical and other values. These are most often non-renewable and unique natural sites and phenomena such as structural forms, products of endogenous (intrusive, volcanic) and exogenous processes (formation of sediment basins), minerals, rocks, fossils, deposits of mineral resources and others, but also those discovered by human activities.

Accordingly, in all geotectonic units, numerous geoheritage sites of national and international importance have been recorded and selected.

According to its legal powers, the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia has issued Studies on the protection of some of these geoheritage sites, which are the basic documents in the process of adopting the act on protection, that is, the designation of protected areas.

Geoheritage sites are protected in: • the mountainous areas (volcanic neck Ostrovica, "Kolenasta bora" in the railroad Belgrade-Mala Krsna, petrified forest Lojanik near Kraljevo and others), but also in • the densely populated urban areas (geological profile at Tasmajdan, profile below the "Pobednik" monument in the Kalemegdan fortress, loess profile in Zemun and others).

Individually, these sites are protected as monuments of nature, and quite a number of them are located within spatially larger protected areas, such as national parks, nature parks and others.