Ore Mountains

The Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge, Krušné hory) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: Keilberg) at above sea level and the Fichtelberg in Germany at . The Ore Mountains have been intensively reshaped by human intervention and a diverse cultural landscape has developed. Mining in particular, with its tips, dams, ditches and sinkholes, directly shaped the landscape and the habitats of plants and animals in many places. The region was also the setting of the earliest stages of the early modern transformation of mining and metallurgy from a craft to a large-scale industry, a process that preceded and enabled the later Industrial Revolution. The higher altitudes from around 500 m above sea level on the German side belong to the Ore Mountains/Vogtland Nature Park - the largest of its kind in Germany with a length of 120 km. The eastern Ore Mountains are protected landscape. Other smaller areas on the German and Czech sides are protected as nature reserves and natural monuments. On the ridges there are also several larger raised bogs that are only fed by rainwater. The mountains are popular for hiking and there are winter sports areas at higher elevations. In 2019, the region became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In English, the Ore ɔːr Mountains are sometimes referred to as the Ore Mountain Range, but are also sometimes called the Erzgebirge ˈeːɐ̯tsɡəˌbɪʁɡə or Erz Mountains ɛərts,ɜːrts after their German name or the Krušné Mountains ˈkrʊʃni,-neɪ after their Czech name. In Czech they are the Krušné hory ˈkruʃnɛː ˈhorɪ, from old Czech krušec, meaning "piece of ore", and were historically known as Rudohoří, a literal translation of the German name, and Vyšehory, meaning "high mountains". In Upper Sorbian the mountains are known as the Rudne horiny. The German and Upper Sorbian names, as well as the historical Czech Rudohoří, literally mean "ore mountains".