Czech Republic weather, climate and geography

Geography

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country situated in central Europe, sharing frontiers with Germany in the west, Poland in the north, the Slovak Republic in the east, and Austria in the south. Covering only about one-third of the area of the United Kingdom, the country is hilly and picturesque.

The western two-thirds of the country is known as Bohemia, and consists of a vast river basin fringed by hills and mountains. The Czech Republic's longest river, the Labe, rises in the KrkonoÅ¡e Mountains in the northeast, on the border with Poland, and flows south, then west, then north into Germany where it becomes the River Elbe. These mountains are also home to the country's highest summit, Sněžka (1,602m/5,262ft).

Prague sits almost in the middle of Bohemia on the River Vltava, which flows into the Labe just to the north of the city. The Vltava rises in the forested Å umava hills that run along the country's southern border with Austria. The plains to the north of Prague are bordered by the KruÅ¡né Hory (Ore Mountains, named for the iron ore and other minerals found there).

The eastern third of the Czech Republic is known as Moravia. This region is also based on a river basin, that of the Morava River, which rises in the northern hills near the Polish border and flows south to join the Danube at Bratislava. The main city of Moravia is Brno, the second-largest in the Czech Republic.