Lange_diercke_sachsen_dresden_und_umgegend

The Dresden BasinDickinson (1964). pp. 624-625. ( or ''Dresdner Elbtalweitung'') is a roughly 45 km long and 10 km wide area of the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

Valley between the towns of

Pirna Pirna (; , ) is a town in Saxony, Germany and capital of the administrative district Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. The town's population is over 37,000. Pirna is located near Dresden and is an important district town as well as a ''Große ...

and Meißen.Elkins (1972), pp. 293-4. The city of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

lies in the Dresden Basin.

Geography

The Dresden Basin is formed by the foothills and flanks of the Eastern Ore Mountains and western Lusatian Highlands and the northwestern slopes of Saxon Switzerland. Geologically it is a

rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges produced by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear ...

and its most important river, the

flows through it in wide

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

s. The

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

is climatically milder than the surrounding area, so that on the northern slopes of the hills

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s may be cultivated (Saxon Wine Route). In addition, there is intensive fruit farming. The valley climate is significantly drier (average annual precipitation below 700 mm) and warmer (average air temperature 8.5 °C, in Dresden city centre 9.9 °C) than the surrounding hills. The region was settled early due to the fertile soils (

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, 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 loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

) and the easy river crossings and achieved worldwide importance from a cultural and historical perspective. Today the Dresden conurbation almost entirely fills the basin. Parts of the Dresden Basin near the Elbe (the Dresden Elbe Valley) were given

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

status between 2004 and 2009 by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

due to their cultural and natural significance. During the East German era, the Basin was jokingly referred to by its inhabitants as the Valley of the Clueless, because they were not able to receive West German television until the late 1980s, and then only patchily. The most important towns and cities are (in downstream order): *

* Heidenau *

* Radebeul * Coswig (Sachsen) * Meißen

References

Bibliography

*Dickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen. . * Elkins, T H (1972). ''Germany'' (3rd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, 1972. .

Geography

References

Bibliography

See also