SOOS nature preserve

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Last Updated on Friday, 11 November 2011 14:26

The Nature Preserve is situated 6 km to the north- east of Františkovy Lázně. The area of 221 hectares was declared a nature preserve in 1964; however, only a part of it is accessible, and that from a 1.2 km-long paved educational trail.

 Here, one can find descriptions and explanatory notes. The preserve is an expansive peat bog and fenland with numerous mineral spring outflows and with pure carbon dioxide release in so-called moffets or mud volcanoes. The educational trail leads along the bottom of a dried-up lake, the water of which was salty (mineral). Today, a European rarity may be found here – the so-called kieselguhr shield – constituting accumulated diatomaceous earth of diatom shells deposited on the lake’s bottom. It is a moonscape furrowed up by erosion and covered with white and yellow layer of precipitated mineral salts. There are many protected animals in the preserve as well as many wetland plants and halophytes.

To be found on the site

an educational trail of 1.2 km, a geo-park, a zoo (a wild animals rescue station), "The Nature of the Cheb Region" Museum and "The Bird World" Museum and a new pavilion with the exhibits of "The History of the Earth", of palaegeology, with large-scale reproductions of pictures by Zdeněk Burian and with models of life-sized prehistoric lizards, in 2007 a new model of the mammoth.