Eastern Upper Lusatia

Eastern Upper Lusatia (German: Östliche Oberlausitz) is a natural region in Saxony and, in a broader sense, part of the Western Sudetes range including the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The current Saxon division of natural regions view the region as part of the Saxon Loess Fields and divides it into 12 subdivisions at the level of meso-geochores.

Eastern Upper Lusatia runs in a north-south direction between the towns of Görlitz and Zittau. In the north it borders on the Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape (Oberlausitzer Heide- und Teichgebiet), in the south on the Zittau Mountains, in the west on the Upper Lusatian Gefilde (Oberlausitzer Gefilde) and the Upper Lusatian Highlands. Its eastern part is bisected by the Lusatian Neisse and lies in Poland. Geographical features of particular note in the region are the Königshain Hills, the Neiße valley and the old mining landscapes south of Görlitz and in the Zittau Basin.

The natural region is very varied and characterized by hill ranges, isolated hills, plateau and basins alongside one another. Ice age ground moraines, meltwater sands and the overlying loess soils fill out the granite relief to varying degrees. The loess loam is generally only about 1 to 1.5 m thick. As witnesses to the Tertiary volcanism of the area there are lava plains and isolated hills of basalt and phonolite. In the Zittau and Oderwitz Basin, as well as the Berzdorf Basin there are important deposits of brown coal in the sediments.

Climatically Eastern Upper Lusatia lies partially in the lee of the Upper Lusatian Highlands. For example, onlyr 665 mm of precipitation falls annually. The average annual temperature lies between 8 and 8.6 °C. The potential natural vegetation here is Wood Bedstraw-Hornbeam-Oak forest with Small-leaved Limes.

Sources
  • Mannsfeld, K. und Syrbe, R.-U. (eds.): Naturräume in Sachsen mit Kartenbeilage „Naturräumliche Gliederung Sachsens“, in: Forschungen zur deutschen Landeskunde (Vol. 257), Deutsche Akademie für Landeskunde, Selbstverlag, Leipzig, 2008, ISBN 978-3-88143-078-4
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