Błędów Desert
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Błędów Desert (Polish: Pustynia Błędowska) is a desert between Błędów (part of Dąbrowa Górnicza in Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union) and village Klucze in Poland, European Union. Desert lies mainly on Silesian Highlands in Silesian Voivodeship. Area 32 km².
The Bledowska Desert is the largest in Central Europe accumulation of loose sand away from any sea, created thousands of years ago by a melting glacier. The desert landscape had been created since the Middle Ages, as an accidental effect of mining (zinc, silver, coal), but the specific geological structure has been of big importance - the average thickness of the sand layer is about 40 meters (maximum 70 meters), which made the fast and deep drainage very easy. In the recent years the desert has started to shrink. The phenomenon of mirages has been known to exist there.[citation needed]
During the Second World War the desert was used by the German Afrika Korps for training and testing equipment before deployment in Africa.
[edit] External links
- (English) Poland's travel site (scroll down the page!)
- (Polish) Błędów Desert (to view the photo gallery, scroll down the page!)
- (Polish) Polish Sahara Association
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