Lusatian Mountains

Lusatian Mountains
Cross-country skiing route along the Lusatian Mountains' main ridge. The mountain in the background is the Lausche.
Highest point
Peak	Lausche (Luž)
Elevation	793 m (2,602 ft)
Geography
Countries	Germany and Czech Republic
States	Saxony and Bohemia
Parent range	Western Sudetes
Geology
Type of rock	Sandstone and Granite

The Lusatian Mountains (Czech: Lužické hory; German: Lausitzer Gebirge; Polish: Góry Łużyckie) are a mountain range of the Western Sudetes on the southeastern border of Germany with the Czech Republic. They are a continuation of the Ore Mountains range west of the Elbe valley. The mountains of the northern, German, part are called the Zittau Mountains.

Geography

The Lausche from the north

The range is among the westernmost extensions of the Sudetes, which stretch along the border between the historic region of Silesia in the north, and Bohemia and Moravia in the south up to the Moravian Gate in the east, where they join the Carpathian Mountains. The northwestern foothills of the Lusatian Mountains are called the Lusatian Highlands; in the southwest the range borders on the České Středohoří mountains.

The range is largely made up of sandstone sedimentary rocks leaning on a Precambrian crystalline basement. The northern ridge is marked by the Lusatian Fault, a geological disturbance zone separating the Bohemian sandstones from the Lusatian granodiorite. During the Tertiary volcanic magma streams broke through the sandstone layer and solidified into basalt and phonolite. Several sandstone contact areas were also hardened to columns and distinct rock formations.

Both the German (Zittau Mountain Nature Park) and the Czech (Lusatian Mountain Nature Park or ChKO Lužické hory) parts nowadays are protected areas according to IUCN guidelines.

Mountains and hills

Pěnkavčí vrch

View of Klíč in winter

The highest peak is the Lausche (793 m). Other notable peaks include the Pěnkavčí vrch (792m), Jedlová (774m), Klíč (760m), Hochwald (750m) and Studenec (736m).

• Lausche (Luž), 793 m
• Pěnkavčí vrch (Finkenkoppe), 792 m
• Jedlová (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
• Střední vrch (Mittenberg), 593 m
• Malý Stožec (Kleiner Schöber) 659 m
• Zlatý vrch (Goldberg), 657 m
• Chřibský vrch (Himpelberg), 621 m
• Sokol (Falkenberg), 592 m
• Töpfer, 582 m
• Popova skála (Pfaffenstein), 565 m
• Ortel (Ortelsberg), 554 m
• Zámecký vrch (Schlossberg), 530 m
• Oybin, 514 m

See also

• List of regions of Saxony
• Lusatian Highlands

External links

• Czech site
• Photos of the Lusatian Mountains