Sudetes

Sudetes
Highest point
PeakSněžka/Śnieżka
Elevation1,603 m (5,259 ft)
Coordinates50°44′10″N 15°44′24″E / 50.73611°N 15.74000°E / 50.73611; 15.74000
Dimensions
Length300 km (190 mi)
Naming
Native name
Geography
Divisions of the Sudetes
CountriesCzech Republic, Poland and Germany
Regions/VoivodeshipsÚstí nad Labem, Liberec, Hradec Králové, Pardubice, Olomouc, Moravian-Silesian, Lower Silesian, Opole and Saxony
Range coordinates50°30′N 16°00′E / 50.5°N 16°E / 50.5; 16
Geology
OrogenyVariscan orogeny (assembly)
Alpine orogeny (uplift)

The Sudetes (/sˈdtz/ soo-DEE-teez), commonly known as the Sudeten Mountains or Sudetic Mountains, is a geomorphological subprovince in Central Europe, shared by the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany. They consist mainly of mountain ranges and are the highest part of Bohemian Massif. They stretch from the Saxon capital of Dresden in the northwest across to the region of Lower Silesia in Poland and to the Moravian Gate in the Czech Republic in the east. Geographically the Sudetes are a Mittelgebirge with some characteristics typical of high mountains.[1] Its plateaus and subtle summit relief makes the Sudetes more akin to mountains of Northern Europe than to the Alps.[1]

Śnieżka
Králický Sněžník
Mouflon

In the east of the Sudetes, the Moravian Gate and Ostrava Basin separates from the Carpathian Mountains. The Sudetes' highest mountain is Mount Sněžka/Śnieżka 1,603 m (5,259 ft), which is also the highest mountain of the Czech Republic, Bohemia, Silesia, and Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in the Giant Mountains, lying on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland. Mount Praděd (1,491 m/4,893 ft) in the Hrubý Jeseník mountains is the highest mountain of Moravia. Lusatia's highest point (1,072 m/3,517 ft) lies on Mount Smrk/Smrek in the Jizera Mountains, and the Sudetes' highest mountain in Germany, which is also the country's highest mountain east of the river Elbe, is Mount Lausche/Luž (793 m/2,600 ft) in the Zittau Mountains, the highest part of the Lusatian Mountains. The most notable rivers rising in the Sudetes are Elbe, Oder, Spree, Morava, Bóbr, Lusatian Neisse, Eastern Neisse, Jizera and Kwisa. The highest parts of the Sudetes are protected by national parks;[2] Karkonosze and Stołowe (Table) in Poland and Krkonoše in the Czech Republic.

In the west, the Sudetes border with the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The westernmost point of the Sudetes lies in the Dresden Heath (Dresdner Heide), the westernmost part of the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands, in Dresden.

The Sudeten Germans (the German-speaking inhabitants of Czechoslovakia) as well as the Sudetenland (the border regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia they inhabited) are named after the Sudetes.

  1. ^ a b Migoń, Piort (2008). "High-mountain elements in the geomorphology of the Sudetes, Bohemian Massif, and their significance". Geographia Polonica. 81 (1): 101–116.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mazurski1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).