Two major mountain ranges populate Poland's south-east and south-west borders, respectively: the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains mountain ranges. Those ranges are located both within and outside of Poland. Within Poland, neither of them is forbidding enough to prevent substantial habitation; the Carpathians are especially densely populated. The rugged form of the Sudeten range derives from the geological shifts that formed the later Carpathian uplift. The Carpathians in Poland, formed as a discrete topographical unit in the relatively recent Tertiary Era, are the highest mountains in the country. They are the northernmost edge of a much larger range that extends into the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, and Romania.
The à ÂwiÃÂtokrzyskie Mountains, one of the oldest mountain ranges in Europe, are located in central Poland, in the vicinity of the city of Kielce. The mountain range consists of a number of separate ranges, the highest of which is à Âysogóry (lit. bald mountains). Together with the Jura Krakowsko-CzÃÂstochowska the mountains form a region called the Lesser Poland Upland (Wyà ¼yna Maà Âopolska). They were formed during the Caledonian orogeny of the Silurian period and then rejuvenated in the Hercynian orogeny of the Upper Carboniferous period.
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