Spectacular Sandstone Rock Cities in the Czech Republic

We describe five spectacular geological and geomorphological sandstone rock cities in the Czech Republic. Each region is famous and exceptional for its reliefs and geological interestingness. These five localities are: (1) Hruba Skala, (2) Suche skaly, (3) Kokořin area, (4) Dutý Kamen and (5) Pravcicka brana. It is worth to spend a day in each locality to admire the architecture of nature and the physical and chemical processes like selective weathering. Rocks described in this guide were formed during Cretaceous when the seawater attended the Bohemian Massif ~100 Ma years ago. In the Cretaceous, the sand was subsided into the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin and compacted in the shallow water at ~200 m depth. During the Alpine orogenesis, the Bohemian Massif was cut by NW–SE- and NE–SW-oriented main faults. Blocks of compact sandstones were broken and eroded. Spectacular sandstone rock cities formed eventually. There are substantial sandstone labyrinths, tiny sandstone towers, windows, caves, stone plates, mushrooms, balanced boulders and other features.