Muskau Bend Geopark

The Luk Muzakowa is a terminal moraine in the shape of a horseshoe about forty kilometres across, formed when a glacier pushed the ground ahead of it into a ridge and then retreated, and it is one of the clearest examples of the form anywhere in Europe - clear enough to be legible from satellite images, which is how most people first see it. The glacier also folded lignite seams up towards the surface, and those were mined from the nineteenth century until the 1970s; the pits filled with water afterwards and the results are the reason to come: dozens of small lakes whose colours - rust orange, turquoise, acid green, deep blue - come from iron, sulphur and pH from the exposed seams, in a forest that has grown back around them. It is a UNESCO Global Geopark, shared with Germany. The water is acidic and swimming is not advised. Muskau Park, a UNESCO landscape garden, straddles the border nearby.

The landscape

• A glacial horseshoe - a terminal moraine forty kilometres across, visible from orbit.
• Coloured mining lakes - orange, turquoise and green from iron, sulphur and pH.
• Regrown forest - woodland closed over pits worked until the 1970s.
• A cross-border geopark - shared UNESCO designation with Germany.

When to go

April to October. Two days.

Things to know

The water is acidic mine drainage - do not swim or drink. Old workings are unstable in places and unfenced. Colours vary with weather and season. The area is rural with limited services.

Nearby

Muskau Park is on the border at Leknica; Zary is east.