GEOGRAPHY

The Czech Republic is surrounded by Austria, Germany, Poland and the Slovak Republic and it consists of Bohemia in the west and Moravia in the east. Within Moravia is a small southern part of the historical region called Silesia, the rest of which is nowadays Poland.

Prague, the capital of both the Czech Republic and Bohemia, is located at both sides of the Vltava River about 30 km above its junction with the Labe River.

The Czech Republic has a beautiful and diverse landscape with mountains, highlands, lowlands, caves, canyons, extensive fields, swamps, lakes, ponds and dams.

Unfortunately, the further north you go, the worse the air pollution and acid-rain damage gets due to the unregulated industrialization since the 19th century.

Despite centuries of clear-cutting for cultivation, forests still cover about one third of the Czech Republic. Most remaining virgin forest is in uncultivatable mountain area. Above the tree line (about 1,400 m) there is little but grasses, shrubs and lichens.

Almost half the high-altitude forests in northern Bohemia have been destroyed by acid rain; Moravian forests have done somewhat better.

The country has a rich wildlife with lynxes and other wildcats, marmots, otters, marten and mink. Pheasants, partridges, ducks, wild geese and other game birds are common in woods and swamps and commonly hunted. Eagles, vultures, osprey, storks, bustards and grouse are rarer.

Occasionally, wolves and bears wander over the Carpathian Mountains into eastern Moravia.

The damp continental climate over most of the Czech Republic is responsible for warm, showery summers; cold, snowy winters and generally changeable conditions. July is the hottest month everywhere, January the coldest. From December through February, temperatures push below freezing even in the lowlands, and are bitter in the mountains. There is no real 'dry season', and the long, sunny hot spells of summer tend to be broken by sudden, heavy thunderstorms. Winter brings 40 to 100 days of snow on the ground (about 130 in the mountains), plus fog in the lowlands.