Siedlec Desert

Everyone knows the Błędów Desert, but a few kilometres from Złoty Potok the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland has a second, much smaller "desert". The Siedlec Desert covers about 25 ha of open sand near the village of Siedlec, with dunes up to 30 metres high. On hot days a mirage can sometimes be seen shimmering above the sand.

How a desert ended up on the Jura

This is a former foundry-sand quarry. The sand is what remains of a seabed from the Upper Jurassic, laid down again during a marine transgression in the Upper Cretaceous. In the Pleistocene, an ice sheet pushed it here as a terminal moraine, and westerly winds at the end of the last glaciation and the start of the Holocene piled it into dunes. Silesia's official tourist information describes the site as a geosite of regional importance, shaped both by wind and by human activity.

After the Second World War the deposit was worked by an open-pit mine. When extraction ended in the 1960s, much of the quarry was planted with Scots pine, which still grows here. According to information from 2025, the area is now managed by the State Forests, and motor vehicles are banned.

What to see

• Dunes up to 30 m high, with a panorama board on the highest one.
• The "Oaza" spring, which feeds a small pool with no outflow, fringed with reeds.
• Sand-loving plants: grey hair-grass, lyme grass, the protected dwarf everlast and annual knawel.

Legend and curiosities

A local legend says the ground here was scorched by the Devil as he chased Pan Twardowski, Poland's Faust-like sorcerer, who fled on a rooster. The desert has also hosted running races: the first Polish "Pustynna 10" desert run was held here in 2009, and the first Polish Desert Running Championships a year later.

Tripto tip

Entry is free and the site is open all year. Allow 1–1.5 hours for a walk over the dunes and up to the viewpoint; trudging through loose sand is more tiring than it looks. In summer bring water and a hat, as the sand heats up fast. The visit combines easily with nearby sights: Na Dupce Cave is about 400 m away, the Warszawski Quarry about 1.6 km, and Twardowski's Gate and the Devil's Bridges in Złoty Potok about 3–4 km.