Punkva is a long river in

South Moravia The South Moravian Region ( cs, Jihomoravský kraj; , ; sk, Juhomoravský kraj) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia (an exception is Jobova Lhota which trad ...

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 ...

. It is a

Subterranean river A subterranean river is a river that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground surface – one where the riverbed does not represent the surface of the Earth. It is distinct from an aquifer, which may flow like a river but is contained within a per ...

in the

Moravian Karst The Moravian Karst ( cs, Moravský kras) is a karst landscape and protected landscape area to the north of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It encompasses a number of notable geological features, including roughly 1100 cav ...

and a left tributary of the Svitava. It is the longest underground river in the Czech Republic. The river forms underground as a confluence of two other underground streams. Sloupský potok is the large of the two and enters the underground within the Sloup-Šošuv cave system near Sloup. Its own source is the Luha, which is therefore Punkva's ultimate source. The other source is Bílá Voda, which sinks near Nová Rasovna cave by

Holštejn Holštejn is a municipality and village in Blansko District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 200 inhabitants. Holštejn lies approximately north of Blansko, north of Brno, and south-east of Prague Prague ...

The river flows into the

Macocha Gorge The Macocha Abyss, also known as the Macocha Gorge, is a sinkhole in the Moravian Karst cave system of the Czech Republic. The sinkhole is deep, which makes it the deepest of its kind (light hole type) in Central Europe. It is a popular tourist at ...

and forms a small lake at the bottom. The water reenters the underground thereafter and forms the

Punkva Caves The Punkva Caves (Czech: ''Punkevní jeskyně'') are a cave system of the Czech Republic located north of the city of Brno, near the town of Blansko. The Punkva River flows through it. Part of it is the Macocha Gorge, its sinkhole is about 138.7 m ...

, which are a tourist attraction attached to Macocha. Tourists are taken by boat through a part of the system. After leaving the caves Punkva flows through a valley and several fish ponds. Multiple small local streams are its right tributaries. It enters the Svitava on the southern side of

Blansko Blansko (; german: Blanz) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Svitava River on the border of the Moravian Karst. It is mainly an industrial town. Administrative parts Vil ...

and its flow joins the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

watershed.

External Links

Turistika.cz: Punkva
Rivers of the South Moravian Region Blansko District {{CzechRepublic-river-stub