Environment

Adjoining Austria, Germany, Poland and the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic 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 in present-day Poland. Prague, the capital of both the Czech Republic and Bohemia, sits astride the Vltava River about 30km (19mi) above its junction with the Labe River. The Czech Republic has a beautiful and diverse landscape with plenty of mountains, gentle highlands, lowlands, caves, canyons, broad fields, bogs, lakes, ponds and dams. Unfortunately, the further north you go, the worse the appalling air pollution and high-altitude acid-rain damage gets - belated pay-back for unregulated industrialisation since the 19th century. Despite the significant environmental damage, the north includes some of the Czech Republic's most sublime landscapes including the stunning Sandstone Rocks of Labe, and the bizarre 'rock towns' of Český ráj and the Adršpach-Teplice region.