Pustynia Kozłowska

You might be surprised to hear that Poland has a desert. You might be even more surprised to hear that the Eastern European country has multiple. Though the Błędowska Desert is larger, the Kozłow Desert (or Pustynia Kozłowska in Polish) in the Lower Silesian Forest has a particularly unique story.

The dunes here initially formed as a result of glacial movement, which deposited large amounts of sand in the area as the ice sheets moved along the European continent. Those sand dunes turned into a “desert” as a result of military exercises. Specifically, rocket testing from the 1920s onwards, first under the Germans and then later under the Soviets. As the forest vegetation was bombed away, sand dunes were exposed. The area was used for these exercises for many years, as the dunes offered a shield from exploding rockets. 

Weapons testing in the area finally ended in 1992 when Soviet forces withdrew from Poland. The sandy area of the desert presently covers 20 hectares, though it is slowly being overgrown as vegetation recovers.