My small mountains - Góry Kaczawskie

These low mountains separated by two faults from Karkonosze and Silesian Lowland have rich mineralizations and, therefore, people were very active here

In SW Poland Gory Kaczawskie (in English the Kaczawa Mts.) are the most northern range of Sudetes and from the Karkonosze Mts. they are separated by the Intra-Sudetic fault. The other northern fault at a level of ca 400 m a.s.l. forms a border between these mountains and adjacent Silesian depression, the Kaczawa Foreland. Gory Kaczawskie are composed of several subranges, i.e.:
1. Grzbiet Polnocny (Northern Range) having eastern rocky part with the highest mountain Okole (714 m a.s.l.),
2. Grzbiet Poludniowy (Southern Range) with the highest Folwarczna Mt. (720 m asl) in the Maslak Massif. There are also included Gory Olowiane (the Lead Mountains) lying most southerly near the Bobr River,
3. Grzbiet Maly (Small Range) with characteristic cone of Stromiec Mt. (551 m a.s.l.)
4. Grzbiet Wschodni (Eastern Range) with polymetallic mineralizations in the Zelezniak Massif (664 m a.s.l.).
Geological faults caused in the past a volcanic activity and today it is visible in form of many volcano cones which of the best example is Ostrzyca (551 m a.s.l.). Volcanic outcrops of basalts and trachybasalts we can also see near Przedziedza, Lubiechowa and the Chelmy Landscape Park located NE of the Kaczawa Mts.
Gory Kaczawskie having such a rich geological history and a lot of minerals, including gold, attracted people from the ancient time. There were here many mines, quarries of limestone and gravel and sand exploitation. Some geological speciality of this area there are beautiful achates often found as scattered specimens along cultivated fields. These chalcedony nodules are formed mostly in porphyry. The Kaczawa's Mts. achates are well known because of their different colours, shapes and patterns of chalcedony layers arrangement. In such localities as Rozana, Nowy Kosciol, Sokolowiec, Proboszczow, Lubiechowa and Przedziedza on the Kaczawa Foreland one can find different types of these fine stones.
History of this area is visible in many places as ruins of magnificent castles and palaces. At present some of them are well restored.
I think that a sign of these mountains can be "a crying mountain", Polom Mt. (667 m asl) eaten in half by a still working quarry of limestone. Around this quarry all trees and shrubs are white.

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