Błędów Desert
The Błędów Desert ( Polish Pustynia Błędowska ) is a nine kilometer long and 3-4 km wide, sandy area between Błędów (part of Dąbrowa Górnicza ) and Klucze in Poland. The 32 km ² area is mostly in Wyżyna Śląska, the Silesian Highlands in the Silesian Voivodeship.
The desert is the largest deposit of sand in Central Europe far from the coast inland, probably only followed by Lieberoser desert in Germany (Brandenburg). It was formed during the melting of the glaciers thousands of years ago. The appearance of a desert was the site since the Middle Ages. The mining ( zinc, silver and coal) created today's image. The specific geological structure, however, was of great importance: The average thickness of the sand layers is 40 meters (maximum 70 meters). The favored the fast drying.
In recent years, the desert began to shrink. Previously, she was still 150 km ². While reports from the 1950s and 1960s still of mirages, sand storms, whirlwinds and oases, there are now (as of 2008 ) in the desert, more and more plants, especially Caspian pastures; pure sand areas are becoming increasingly rare.
During the Second World War, the German Afrika Korps used the area for training purposes prior to use in Africa.