The Second International Geopark Camp in Muskau

Greative  geopark camp on the German-Polish border with the participation of students from the Bakony–Balaton UNESCO Global Geopark

The second international geopark camp was organised in August 2016 for 15-17 years old students in the in the Muskauer Faltenbogen/Łuk Mużakowa UNESCO Global Geopark. The theme of the camp this time was ’handcrafts meet geology’. During the camp youngsters from three nations, including 7 students and a teacher from the Balatonalmádi Dual Language School got acquainted with the geological and cultural sites of the geopark. An officer from the Bakony–Balaton Geopark organisation also travelled with them.

The camp spotlighted every day another raw material (coal, glass sand, clay, iron and wood). The participants learned about the original materials, about their old and modern usage and they could try pottery, glass grinding, basket making and blacksmithery. Students made their own crafts and took them home to remember each day of the camp.
During the evenings the students made presentations about their geoparks. Besides handcrafts workshops, participants hiked, visited exhibitions and museums: railway history exhibition, narrow gauge railway, the UNESCO World Heritage Muskauer Park/Park Mużakowski in Bad Muskau, a functioning lignite quarry, chocolate manufature, old brick factory, flora and fauna of River Nieße on the border, lakes on the previous mining area, open-air museum, ethnography museum, rafting tour and sightseeing in Berlin.

Muskauer Faltenbogen/Łuk Mużakowa Geopark

is recognised as one of the most scenic push moraines in Middle Europe. Its characteristic horseshoe shape was formed some 340,000 years ago as the "Muskauer glacier" advanced from the thick inland ice sheet which covered half of Europe at that time. The load from the ice cover caused subsoil compaction down to a depth of about 300 metres while deforming the horizontal successions of sand, gravel, clay and lignite beds. The unconsolidated rock masses in front of the glacier piled up to form a terminal moraine of some 150 m above today's ground level. The inland ice of the more recent glacial periods flattened the moraine down to today's level, but not entirely, as can be seen from “High Hill” (Hoher Berg) near Döbern (183 m) or the so-called “Dragon Hills” (Drachenberge) near Krauschwitz (163 m).
The Muskau Arch, although initially shaped long time ago, has remained an ever changing landscape until this very day. Today, the Muskau Arch is a picturesque cultural and post-mining landscape full of many and varied lakes, and a natural area of forests exhibiting significant ecological diversity. This beautiful recreational landscape is crossed by a network of theme-based hiking and biking trails.