Jizera Mountains

Jizera Mountains, or Izera Mountains, are part of the Western Sudetes on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland. The range got its name from the Jizera River, which rises at the southern base of the Smrk massif. The beech forests within the Jizera Mountains were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, because of their outstanding preservation and testimony to the ecological history of Europe (and the beech family specifically) since the Last Glacial Period. Geography [[File:Jizerské hory - Sněžné věžičky1.jpg|thumb|Sněžné věžičky (Czech "snow turret"): picturesque rock pinnacle in the Jizerské hory]] The range stretches from the Lusatian Mountains (Zittau Mountains) in the northwest to the Krkonoše in the southeast. The Jizera Mountains comprise the sources of the Jizera river, as well as of the Kwisa and the Lusatian Neisse. The major part in the south is formed from granite, in the northern part from gneisses and mica schists, with some areas formed from basalt. The weather conditions are characterized by above-average annual precipitation. On 30 July 1897, the measuring station at Nová Louka recorded a daily precipitation amounting to 345.1 mm (13.6 inches), still an unbroken European record.