page_title: Upper Lusatia
section_title: Mountains and rivers
hierarchical_section_title: Upper Lusatia / Geography and nature / Mountains and rivers
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Historische Karte der Oberlausitz
context_page_description: Upper Lusatia is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region of Lusatia, named after the Slavic Lusici tribe. Both Lusatias are home to the West Slavic minority group of the Sorbs.
  The major part of Upper Lusatia belongs to the German state of Saxony, roughly comprising the Bautzen and Görlitz districts. The northwestern extremity around Ruhland and Tettau is incorporated into the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district of Brandenburg. The Polish part, east of the Neisse River, belongs to Lower Silesian Voivodeship. A small strip of land in the north around Łęknica, together with the Polish part of Lower Lusatia, is incorporated into Lubusz Voivodeship.
  The historic capital of Upper Lusatia is Bautzen, while the largest city in the region is Görlitz/Zgorzelec, halved between Germany and Poland since 1945. The name Lusatia superior was first recorded in a 1474 deed, derived from the adjacent Lower Lusatian lands in the north, which originally were just called the March of Lusatia.
context_section_description: The highest elevations of the German part of Upper Lusatia are in the Zittau Mountains (Lusatian Ridge), part of the Lusatian Mountains forming the border with the adjacent Bohemian region in the south, which today belong to the Czech Republic. The highest peaks of the Zittau Mountains are the Lausche at 792.6 m (2,600 ft)and Hochwald at 749 m (2,457 ft). The adjacent Lusatian Highlands comprise the Landeskrone (420 m), Löbauer Berg (448 m), Kottmar (583 m), Czorneboh (561 m), Bieleboh (499 m), and Valtenberg (587 m). However, the highest point of historic Upper Lusatia is the Tafelstein (Tabulový Kámen) in the Polish part, located at 1,123 m (3,684 ft) on the eastern slopes of the Smrk (Tafelfichte) in the Jizera Mountains (Isergebirge), the border tripoint of Upper Lusatia with the historical region of Lower Silesia to the east and Bohemia to the south.
  All major rivers in the Upper Lusatia flow from south to north. In the west, the Pulsnitz at Königsbrück (the "Gate to Upper Lusatia" on the Via Regia trade route) formerly marked the border with the Meissen lands of the Saxon Electorate. The Spree river has its source in the Lusatian Highlands in the far south of the country and flows through Bautzen. The Lusatian Neisse has formed the German-Polish border since 1945. The river rises in the Czech Jizera Mountains, enters Upper Lusatia near Zittau, flows through Görlitz/Zgorzelec and leaves the country at Bad Muskau for Lower Lusatia. Most of the smaller rivers are called -wasser (water), often in combination with the name of a village which the stream flows through. The eastern border of Upper Lusatia with Lower Silesia is marked by the River Kwisa, who flows past Lubań (Lauban) and continues north towards the Silesian lands into the Bóbr river.
  The central hilly Gefilde (Pahórčina) landscape between Kamenz and Löbau was especially well suited for agriculture and is still very profitable. In the 19th century, in the northern part of Upper Lusatia, in the east on both sides of the Neisse river and around Hoyerswerda large quantities of brown coal were found. Especially the digging in open pits has destroyed large parts of the old cultural landscape. Currently the Nochten pit south of Weißwasser and Turów near Bogatynia in the Polish part are still active. Many of the old coal mines have been restored since the 1970s, especially after 1990, when particular attention was paid to revitalize the landscape. The newly formed lakes are already named and advertised as the Lusatian Lake District (Lausitzer Seenland).
caption: Historic map of Upper Lusatia
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