Błędne Skały (German: Wilde Löcher) – a rock formation at an altitude of 853 m above sea level, forming a picturesque labyrinth (rock city), located in south-western Poland in the

Central Sudetes The Central Sudetes ( or ''Střední Sudety'', , ) are the central part of the Sudetes mountain range on the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. They stretch from the Nysa Kłodzka River and the Kłodzko Valley in the east to the upper Bó ...

in the

Table Mountains Table may refer to: * Table (database), how the table data arrangement is used within the databases * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and colum ...

Location

The labyrinth is located in the

Table Mountains National Park Table may refer to: * Table (database), how the table data arrangement is used within the databases * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and column ...

and includes the north-western part of Stoliwa Skalniak. It is located between

Kudowa-Zdrój Kudowa-Zdrój (, ), or simply Kudowa, is a town located below the Table Mountains in Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in the southwestern part of Poland. It has a population of around 10,000 and is located at the Polish-Czech border, j ...

and

Karłów Karłów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Radków, within Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Radków, west of Kłodzko, and south-west of the regional c ...

, near the border with the

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

. The nearest town is Bukowina Kłodzka. The area of about 21 ha was a nature reserve until the establishment of the Table Mountains National Park.

Creation

At the bottom of the

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cret ...

sea, thick layers of sandstone were deposited. In the Tertiary, during the

Alpine orogeny The Alpine orogeny, sometimes referred to as the Alpide orogeny, is an orogenic phase in the Late Mesozoic and the current Cenozoic which has formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt. Cause The Alpine orogeny was caused by the African c ...

, they were lifted out along with the entire

Sudetes The Sudetes ( ), also known as the Sudeten Mountains or Sudetic Mountains, is a geomorphological subprovince of the Bohemian Massif province in Central Europe, shared by the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. They consist mainly of mountain rang ...

. Then, a long period of erosion and the removal of weathering began. As a result of the uneven resistance of individual rock layers to weathering and the widening of fissures that cut through the massif in three directions, corridors of variable width, several meters deep, were created.

Hiking trails

Two marked hiking trails lead through Błędne Skały: * yellow tourist trail from

Duszniki-Zdrój Duszniki-Zdrój (; ; ), often simplified to Duszniki, is a spa town in Kłodzko Valley and Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in southwestern Poland. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 4,329. Situated on the Bystrzyca Rive ...

* green tourist trail from

Polanica-Zdrój Polanica-Zdrój () is a spa town in Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Kłodzko, and south-west of the regional capital, Wrocław. As at 2021, the town has a population of 6 ...

to Karłów, There is a several-hundred-metre-long tourist route running between various rock formations such as rock maces, mushrooms, or pillars. Some of the rocks have their own names such as Stołowy Głaz, Tunel, Kuchnia or Kurza Stopka. In the narrowest places, tourists have to squeeze through rocky crevices several dozen centimetres narrow.

Name

For several years after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Błędne Skały (''Wandering Rocks'' in Polish) were most often referred to as the Wolf Pit. This term was used by soldiers of the

Border Protection Troops Border Protection Forces (, ''WOP''), also known under its English abbreviation BPT, was the border guard service of the People's Republic of Poland from 1945 to 1989. During its 46 years of existence, it repeatedly changed its structural and servi ...

in situation reports, journalists in press releases, and some authors of guidebooks, such as Anna and Ignacy Potocki. Sometimes Błędne Skały were compared to the ruins of a castle. According to legend, Błędne Skały were created by

Rübezahl Rübezahl (, ; ) is a folkloric mountain spirit ( woodwose) of the Giant Mountains (, , hence his name in Czech and Polish), a mountain range along the border between Czechia and Poland. He is the subject of many legends and fairy tales in Germa ...

Trivia

Błędne Skały were used as a setting for the following films: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Merry Devil's Friend, and Spellbinder.

References

{{coord, 50.4784, 16.2903, format=dms, type:landmark_region:PL, display=title Sudetes Rock formations of Poland