Rock labyrinth
Narrow fissures.
Piotr Chrobot — CC BY 3.0 · Piotr Chrobot — CC BY 3.0 · Poconaco — CC BY-SA 3.0 pl · Poconaco — CC BY-SA 3.0 pl · Jacek Halicki — CC BY-SA 3.0 pl
Szczeliniec Wielki is the highest peak of the Stołowe, or «Table», Mountains in southwest Poland, within Stołowe Mountains National Park near the Czech border, above the villages of Karłów and Pasterka, about 32 km southeast of Wałbrzych and 85 km southwest of Wrocław in a straight line. The mountain rises to about 919 metres and is one of the best-known sandstone table mountains of the Sudetes. Its flat summit is a massif of Cretaceous sandstone cut by erosion into named fissures, corridors and rock labyrinths, the highest point being a rock called the «Great-Grandfather's Armchair». Its Polish name means «the great cleft mountain». Grey sandstone walls rise above dense spruce forest like a flat-topped natural fortress, and rock towers shaped like a camel, a monkey and a hen stand on the plateau. The deep, shady fissures are cold and damp, and snow can linger in them into late spring. Visitors climb a long stone stairway from Karłów to the top, then follow the rock-labyrinth trail through narrow fissures and passages to the viewpoints. The terraces look out over the Sudetes and the Czech countryside, and the route needs moderate fitness.
Narrow fissures.
Camel and monkey.
Views of the Sudetes.
Stołowe Mountains National Park, near Karłów, Lower Silesia, Poland
Moderate fitness and a long stairway.
By car to Karłów.