Děvín (german: Mayden Berg) is a

double peak A double summit, double peak, twin summit, or twin peak refers to a mountain or hill that has two summits, separated by a col or saddle. One well-known double summit is Austria’s highest mountain, the Großglockner, where the main summit of t ...

mountain in the

Pavlov Pavlov (or its variant Pavliv) may refer to: People *Pavlov (surname) (fem. ''Pavlova''), a common Bulgarian and Russian last name *Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist famous for his experiments in classical conditioning Places Czech Republic *Pavlo ...

municipality in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. With an elevation of , it is the highest mountain of the Pavlov Hills within the Mikulov Highlands, and of the Pálava Protected Landscape Area. It is located right on trace where runs line of

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a singl ...

of Upper Thaya drainage and Thaya/Morava mesodrainage.

History

The

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

of Děvín has the remains of a huge Iron Age hill fort, while the ancient

Amber Route The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade. ...

runs neighbors of the mountains base, and all archaic roads in landscape, originally created by animals and later overtaken by humans. The area around base of the mountain is permanently settled longer than last 30,000 years. Since Cromagnos hunters, ower Celtic tribes settlement, Roman fortress, Great Moravia hillforts (

Strachotín Strachotín is a municipality and village in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 800 inhabitants. Geography Strachotín is located about northwest of Břeclav and south of Brno. It lies in the north ...

and Děvín).

Geology

The entire Děvín massif consists mainly by Jurassic limestone, i.e. series of rocks generated during sedimentation. The body of the Děvín is strongly modulated, with outcrops and cliffs (klippe/crag) of pure, hard and white limestone of Later Jurassic origin, called Ernstbrunn limestone. Sedimentation of Ernstbrunn limestone was preceded by the sedimentation of grey calcareous Děvín-Kotel massif. Děvín

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too sm ...

and clay limestone, called Klentnice layers. All the Pavlov Hills are situated at the margin of the

flysch zone Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building epi ...

of the Northern Limestone Alps and Western Carpathians (South moravian carpathians). The flysch beds consist of strongly folded Lower Tertiary

, sandstone and

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

. During the periods of orogenetic activity in the Tertiary, large blocks of Jurassic and

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

rocks were torn from their Jurassic base (now situated more lower - up to 2 km below the surface), and re-deposited over the younger flysch beds. In the Lower Badenian period (Upper Tertiary), the Pavlov Hills were surrounded by a warm sea. Pieces of Jurassic rock present in the littoral

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

from that period indicate that limestone may have been already denuded at that time. At 15 Ma BP (before present) a strong subsidence formed the Vienna Basin. During the following 9 Ma, up to 3 km thick layers of maritime and lacustrine sediments were deposited on its bottom.

Flora

Děvín as a whole eastern part of the Mikulov Highlands lies in the northwest promontory of the

Panonian plain The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only the ...

.Pavlov Hills Botanical excursion guide
/ref> It is the warmest and almost the most

arid area A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

in the Czech Republic, and therefore vines are cultivated here. Because of this climate some plant species that do not occur anywhere else in the country grow here. The colourful mosaic of arid rock grass, fringe tree communities,

thermophilous A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea, though they can be bacteria or fungi. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the ear ...

bushes A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

and

oakwoods on the Děvín slopes, which originated partly due to the influence of grazing, is called karst forest steppe. The Děvín forest plateaus are dominated by sparse loess oakwoods together with a species-rich herbaceous layer, while Panonian oak- hornbean dominates the north-facing slopes and valleys. Riparian forests with pedunculate oaks and narrow-leaved ashes and quite small areas of alluvial meadows have been preserved in the Dyje floodplain in the vicinity of Křivé lake. Remains of halophytic vegetation, which occurred quite commonly on the salinated grazing land in South Moravia, still survive on the western bank of Nesyt pond near Sedlec. Summit is covered by

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

meadow, pinewood and rock.

Top

A radio and TV transmitter is situated on the top. The lower platform is used as an observation tower. It was built in 1979–1980.

Gallery

Palava.od.SZ.JPG, View from Dolní Kounice Pálava-Kotel-a-Děvín.JPG, Vineyeards under Kotel and Děvín hills PalavaDub.jpg, Old oak beaten and formed by wind Pálava - u Soutěsky.jpg, Old route in the rock Pavlov.jpg, Outlook from Děvín summit to Pavlov village Klentnice - pohled 2009.jpg, Klentnice as viewed from Děvín

References

External links

Small-scale hikersmapPálava Protected Landscape Area
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devin Mountains and hills of the Czech Republic Mountain ranges of the Western Carpathians