Ohorn Schwedenstein-Berg Mike Krüger 091203 1

The West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands (german: Westlausitzer Hügel- und Bergland), sometimes just the West Lusatian Hills,''Ohorn''
at zip-code.en. Retrieved 12 Oct 2013 is a natural region in Saxony. It is divided into the West Lusatian Foothills (''Westlausitzer Vorberge'') in the east and the Lusatian Plateau (''Lausitzer Platte'') in the west and forms the westernmost extremity 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 consi ...

range.

Location and boundaries

The West Lusatian Foothills form the northwestern declivity of the

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

. They extend between

Saxon Switzerland Saxon Switzerland (german: Sächsische Schweiz) is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe Sand ...

in the south, the

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

in the south east, the

Upper Lusatian Gefilde The Upper Lusatian Gefilde (german: Oberlausitzer Gefilde or sometimes ''Bautzener Gefilde'', Upper Sorbian: ''Hornjołužiska pahórčina'') is a natural region in Saxony near the German tripoint with the Czech Republic and Poland Poland, ...

in the north east, the

Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape The Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape (also ... District or ... Lake District,Königsbrück-Ruhland Heaths in the northwest. Immediately to the west and also south of the Königsbrück-Ruhland Heath they are adjoined by the Lusatian Plateau. To the north they are bounded by the Großenhainer Pflege, to the south and southwest by the

Dresden Basin The Dresden BasinDickinson (1964). pp. 624-625. (german: (Dresdner) Elbtalkessel or ''Dresdner Elbtalweitung'') is a roughly 45 km long and 10 km wide area of the Elbe Valley between the towns of Pirna and Meißen.Elkins (1972), pp. 293- ...

and just touch Saxon Switzerland in the extreme southeast.

Settlements

The settlements of the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands do not just included those normally counted as part of

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (german: Oberlausitz ; hsb, Hornja Łužica ; dsb, Górna Łužyca; szl, Gōrnŏ Łużyca; pl, Łużyce Górne or ''Milsko''; cz, Horní Lužice) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to t ...

, but also those to the west and south of Upper Lusatia that belong, culturally and historically to other lands, but which still lie geologically on the Lusatian Plateau. The following are some of the settlements that lie within this region: *

Kamenz Kamenz () or Kamjenc ( Sorbian) is a town (''Große Kreisstadt'') in the district of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany. Until 2008 it was the administrative seat of Kamenz District. The town is known as the birthplace of the philosopher and poet Gott ...

, on the northeastern edge on the border with the Upper Lusatian ''Gefilde'' and the

Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape The Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape (also ... District or ... Lake District,West Lusatia The term West Lusatia (german: Westlausitz) was coined in the 1950s for the old counties of Hoyerswerda, Kamenz and Bischofswerda (today in the north and west of the county of Bautzen) – mainly in order to make the Museum of West Lusatia into a c ...

, which is not identical with the natural region, however. *

Elstra Elstra (; Sorbian: ''Halštrow'') is a town in the district of Bautzen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Schwarze Elster, 6 kilometres southeast of Kamenz, and 34 kilometres northeast of Dresden. The name "Elstra" stems from the ...

, a small town south of Kamenz, on the territory of which are two of the more striking hills of the West Lusatian Uplands: the Schwarzenberg and the Hochstein *

Radeberg Radeberg is a small town in the district of Bautzen, Saxony, Germany. It is located approximately 20 kilometres north-east of Dresden. The town has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and an old castle. History Radeberg was mention ...

in Radeberg Land is not always counted as part of Upper Lusatia. *

Sebnitz Sebnitz (; hsb, Zebnica) is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany. Geography The town of Sebnitz lies in the valley of the river Sebnitz and its side valleys between 251 and 460 m above sea level bet ...

does not belong to Upper Lusatian and in the consciousness of the local population is usually seen as part of the natural region of

, which begins a few kilometres to the south. From the viewpoint of natural regional mapping the town borough is part of the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands due to its natural characteristics. *

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

's portion of the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands is exclusively based on natural and landscape considerations and is found in the northeast and east of the city's territory: the Dresden Heath and the

Schönfeld Upland The Schönfeld Upland (german: Schönfelder Hochland) is a plateau in Dresden. It is named after Schönfeld, the district of Dresden in the middle of the plateau. Up to 1950, when Pillnitz was incorporated into Dresden, the upland was known as the ...

, which are part of Radeberg Land. The Dresden Elbe Slopes mark the sharp transition to the

south of the hill country and uplands. At this point the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands form the northern shoulder of a

fault-block Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by relat ...

trough.

Geography and Nature

The Upper Lusatian Highlands to the east give way to various hills and ridges in this very heterogeneous natural region. Ridges between 350 and 450 metres in height dominate the landscape in only a few places. These ridges are mostly isolated, occasionally linked with one another within hilly areas with altitudes between 250 and 300 metres and also embedded within plains. In the central and eastern part of the area

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 gr ...

is the dominant bedrock, which was quarried as Lusatian granite in many places. In the north,

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

prevails but, in the west, by contrast the main rock is

syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). Some syenites contain larger prop ...

. Younger sediments cover this bedrock. In the east,

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeoli ...

derivatives and sandy loess dominate whilst, to the west,

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

s and quicksands are to the fore. Precipitation varies between 650 millimetres on the western edge of the area up to 900 millimetres in the hill country. The mean annual temperatures fall from the West Lusatian Plateau around Moritzburg (8.5 °C) to below 7.5 °C on the hill ridge to the east. The potential natural vegetation is mainly the

high colline Altitudinal zonation (or elevational zonation) in mountainous regions describes the natural layering of ecosystems that occurs at distinct elevations due to varying environmental conditions. Temperature, humidity, soil composition, and solar radi ...

and

submontane Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topogra ...

Wood-rush ''Luzula'' is a genus of flowering plants in the rush family Juncaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with species occurring throughout the world, especially in temperate regions, the Arctic, and higher elevation areas in the tr ...

- Oak-

Beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

wood.

References

{{Coord, 51.22785, N, 14.26815, E, type:mountain_dim:14000_region:DE-SN, format=dms, display=title Natural regions of Saxony West Lusatia Sudetes