The Cham-Furth Depression (german: Cham-Further Senke, cz, Všerubská vrchovina) is a

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of p ...

in the

Upper Palatine-Bavarian Forest The Upper Palatine-Bavarian Forest (german: Oberpfälzisch-Bayerische Wald), (no. D63 or 40) is a natural region in Germany in the northeast of Bavaria. It mainly comprises the low mountain ranges of the Bavarian Forest and Upper Palatine Forest wh ...

that separates the

Upper Palatinate Forest The Upper Palatine Forest (german: Oberpfälzer Wald or ''Böhmischer Wald'', cs, Český les) is a mountain range in Central Europe that is divided between Germany and the Czech Republic. It is part of the larger Bohemian Massif and the German ...

from the

Bavarian Forest The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest The Bavarian Forest ( German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is ...

. At the same time it connects the

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...

with Bohemia. The German part has an area of 281 km², a length of 40 kilometres and a width of five to ten kilometres. The Czech part covers 206 km². The valley runs in a west-southwest-east northeast direction. It is divided into the

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albania ...

basin in the west at a height of 360 to 400 metres, which extends from Roding roughly as far as

Arnschwang Arnschwang is a rural municipality in the district of Cham in Bavaria, Germany. The population was 2,004 as of the 2010 census. In recent years Arnschwang has focused on the production of environmentally friendly energy from biomass and water. ...

, and the smaller

Furth Furth or Fürth may refer to: * Fürth (surname) * Fürth, northern Bavaria, Germany * Fürth (district), Bavaria, Germany *Fürth (electoral district). Bavaria, Germany *Furth, Lower Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany *Fürth, Hesse Fürth is a municipali ...

depression in the east, which extends to Bohemia at heights of 400 to 500 metres. The Furth valley is bounded in the east by the European watershed. Its highest point is Kameňák (''Steinwald'', 751 m) near Svatá Kateřina (''St. Katharina''). The geologically ancient depression is filled with

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

and

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Al ...

sediments Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand a ...

and drained by the rivers

Chamb The Chamb (german: Chamb; cs, Kouba) is a river in the Czech Republic and in Germany. It is a right tributary of the Regen. The Chamb begins south of the Czech village of Kdyně, and flows some westward, crossing into Germany at an elevation ...

and

Regen Regen (Northern Bavarian: ''Reng'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and the district town of the district of Regen. Geography Regen is situated on the great Regen River, located in the Bavarian Forest. Divisions Originally the town consisted ...

and their tributaries. These rivers

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ban ...

through the undulating, hilly region. In the Cham Basin,

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

es and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

s predominate. In the Furth valley

melanocratic A melanocratic rock contains at least 60% dark and heavy ferro-magnesium mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a s ...

rock of the

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ...

amphibolite Amphibolite () is a metamorphic rock that contains amphibole, especially hornblende and actinolite, as well as plagioclase feldspar, but with little or no quartz. It is typically dark-colored and dense, with a weakly foliated or schistose (flak ...

mass is dominant. The climate is warmer and drier than the surrounding mountains, but winters are relatively cold and often characterized by '' böhm'' winds from the east. The hilltops of the typically rural landscape are covered with islands of spruce and pine. While the Cham Basin has been inhabited almost continuously since the Stone Age, the Furth valley was not fully developed until the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD ...

Farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

dominates, followed by

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

use. The Cham-Furth Depression has always been an important communication route between Bavaria and Bohemia. Cham Castle, built around 976, guarded the eastern border of the Empire. The Bavarian-Bohemian border of the vast area has remained highly disputed throughout the early modern period, which led to different negotiations and agreements between the

kings of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings beforehand, first gaining the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of the Holy Roma ...

and the

dukes of Bavaria The following is a list of rulers during the history of Bavaria. Bavaria was ruled by several dukes and kings, partitioned and reunited, under several dynasties. Since 1949, Bavaria has been a democratic state in the Federal Republic of German ...

in 1564, 1580, and finally in 1764. Today the area is part of the Upper Bavarian Forest Nature Park.

External links

Cham-Furth Depression at bfn.de

Literature

* Volker Voggenreiter (1971). ″Geobotanische Untersuchungen in der Cham-Further Senke und ihren montanen Randhöhen″. In ''Hoppea. Denkschriften der Regensburgischen Botanischen Gesellschaft'', XXVIII. Vol. New series XXII, part II. Regensburg. * Taku Minagawa (2015). ″Border Conflicts between Bohemia and Bavaria and Their Solutions. Comparative Considerations.″ In Marco Bellabarba, Hannes Obermair, Hitomi Sato (eds.). ''Communities and Conflicts in the Alps from the Late Middle Ages to Early Modernity.'' (Fondazione Bruno Kessler. Contributi/Beiträge. 30). Bologna-Berlin: Il mulino—Duncker & Humblot. , pp. 73–90. {{Authority control Cham (district) Upper Palatinate !Cham-Furth Depression Geography of the Czech Republic