West Lusatian Hills

The West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands (German: Westlausitzer Hügel- und Bergland), sometimes just the West Lusatian Hills, is a natural region in Saxony. It is divided into the West Lusatian Foothills (Westlausitzer Vorberge) in the east and the Lusatian Plateau (Lausitzer Platte) in the west and forms the westernmost extremity of the Sudetes range.

The West Lusatian Foothills form the northwestern declivity of the Lusatian Highlands. They extend between Saxon Switzerland in the south, the Upper Lusatian Highlands in the south east, the Upper Lusatian Gefilde in the north east, the Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape in the northeast and the Königsbrück-Ruhland Heaths in the northwest.

Immediately to the west and also south of the Königsbrück-Ruhland Heath they are adjoined by the Lusatian Plateau. To the north they are bounded by the Großenhainer Pflege, to the south and southwest by the Dresden Basin and just touch Saxon Switzerland in the extreme southeast.

The settlements of the West Lusatian Hill Country and Uplands do not just included those normally counted as part of Upper Lusatia, but also those to the west and south of Upper Lusatia that belong, culturally and historically to other lands, but which still lie geologically on the Lusatian Plateau. The following are some of the settlements that lie within this region:

The Upper Lusatian Highlands to the east give way to various hills and ridges in this very heterogeneous natural region.

Ridges between 350 and 450 metres in height dominate the landscape in only a few places. These ridges are mostly isolated, occasionally linked with one another within hilly areas with altitudes between 250 and 300 metres and also embedded within plains.

In the central and eastern part of the area granodiorite is the dominant bedrock, which was quarried as Lusatian granite in many places. In the north, greywacke prevails but, in the west, by contrast the main rock is syenite. Younger sediments cover this bedrock. In the east, loess derivatives and sandy loess dominate whilst, to the west, sands and quicksands are to the fore.

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