The Lusatian Mountains ( cs, Lužické hory; german: Lausitzer Gebirge; pl, Góry Łużyckie) are a mountain range of the

Western Sudetes The Western Sudetes ( pl, Sudety Zachodnie; cs, Krkonošská oblast; german: Westsudeten) are a geomorphological macroregion, the western part of the Sudetes subprovince on the borders of the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. They are formed mo ...

on the southeastern border of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. They are a continuation of the Ore Mountains range west of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

valley. The mountains of the northern, German, part are called the

Zittau Mountains The Zittau Mountains (german: Zittauer Gebirge, cs, Žitavské hory), formerly also called the Lusatian Ridge (''Lausitzer Kamm''), refer to the German part of the Lusatian Mountains that straddle the Saxon-Bohemian border in the extreme sout ...

Geography

The range is among the westernmost extensions of the

Sudetes The Sudetes ( ; pl, Sudety; german: Sudeten; cs, Krkonošsko-jesenická subprovincie), commonly known as the Sudeten Mountains, is a geomorphological subprovince in Central Europe, shared by Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. They consis ...

, which stretch along the border between the historic region of

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

in the north, and

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

and

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

in the south up to the

Moravian Gate The Moravian Gate ( cs, Moravská brána, pl, Brama Morawska, german: Mährische Pforte, sk, Moravská brána) is a geomorphological feature in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic and the Upper Silesia region in Poland. It is formed by the ...

in the east, where they join the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

. The northwestern foothills of the Lusatian Mountains are called the

Lusatian Highlands The Lusatian Highlands''Upper Lusatia''
at www.silvaportal.info. Accessed on 10 July 20 ...

; in the southwest the range borders on the

České Středohoří The České středohoří – Central Bohemian Uplands or Central Bohemian Highlandse.g. ''The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 31'', Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998, p. 371 – is a mountain range located in northern Bohemia in the Czech Repub ...

mountains. The range is largely made up of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

sedimentary rocks leaning on a

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

crystalline

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

. The northern ridge is marked by the Lusatian Fault, a geological disturbance zone separating the Bohemian sandstones from the Lusatian

granodiorite Granodiorite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gra ...

. During the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

volcanic

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...

streams broke through the sandstone layer and solidified into

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

and

phonolite Phonolite is an uncommon extrusive rock, of intermediate chemical composition between felsic and mafic, with texture ranging from aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (mixed fine- and coarse-grained). Phonolite is a variation of the igneous ...

. Several sandstone contact areas were also hardened to columns and distinct rock formations.

Mountains and hills

The highest peak is the

Lausche Lausche ( cs, Luž) is the highest peak of the Lusatian Mountains and the highest mountain in the German part of the Upper Lusatia region at . The conical mountain is part of the Zittau Mountains range, situated on the border of the German stat ...

(793 m). Other notable peaks include the Pěnkavčí vrch (792m), Jedlová (774m), Klíč (760m), Hochwald (750m) and Studenec (736m). *

(''Luž''), 793 m * Pěnkavčí vrch (''Finkenkoppe''), 792 m *

Jedlová Jedlová (german: Schönbrunn) is a municipality and village in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,100 inhabitants. Jedlová lies approximately south-west of Svitavy, south-east of Pardubice, and east ...

(''Tannenberg''), 774 m * Klíč (''Kleis''), 760 m * Hochwald (''Hvozd''), 750 m * Studenec (''Kaltenberg''), 736 m * Stožec (''Großer Schöber''), 665 m * Jezevčí vrch (''Limberg''), 665 m * Malý Stožec (''Kleiner Schöber'') 659 m * Zlatý vrch (''Goldberg''), 657 m * Chřibský vrch (''Himpelberg''), 621 m * Jánské kameny (''Johannisstein''), 604 m * Střední vrch (''Mittenberg''), 593 m *

Sokol The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a so ...

(''Falkenberg''), 592 m *

Töpfer Töpfer, also spelled as Toepfer, is a German surname meaning potter. People * Alfred Toepfer (1894–1993), German entrepreneur, founder of Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. * Ernst Toepfer (1877–1955), German painter * Johann Gottlob Töpfer ...

, 582 m * Popova skála (''Pfaffenstein''), 565 m * Ortel (''Ortelsberg''), 554 m * Zámecký vrch (''Schlossberg''), 530 m *

Oybin Oybin ( hsb, Ojbin) is a municipality in the Görlitz district, in Saxony, Germany, located very close to the border of the Czech Republic. Following the defeat of the Protestant armies by the Habsburgs in the Battle of the White Mountain in 162 ...

, 514 m

Protections

The Czech part of the Lusatian Mountains have been a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

since 1976, covering an area of . Administratively it is known as the Lusatian Mountains Protected Landscape Area (''CHKO Lužické hory'') and has the status of CHKO, a so-called Landscape park. The smaller German part of the mountains also became a nature protection in 2008, when the Zittau Mountain Nature Park was established, with the effect that the entire Lusatian Mountains is now under some form of nature protection.

References

External links

Czech site

{{Authority control Sudetes Mountain ranges of the Czech Republic Regions of Saxony Mountain ranges of Saxony

Geography

Mountains and hills

Protections

See also

References

External links