Sachsen is a Federal State of Germany with its pre–WW II borders
reinstated in October 1990. It lies in E Germany. Sachsen has Dresden as its
capital and is located in eastern central Germany bordered on the west by the
German States of Thuringia, Sachsen-Anhalt and Bavaria - to the south by the
Czech Republic - to the east by Poland and in the north by Brandenburg.
It is the intellectual and cultural centre offering unique scenic,
architectural and cultural diversity. The three cities of Dresden, Leipzig and
Chemnitz are in this region as well as the Sachsen Mountains with their bizarre
cliff formations of Elb sandstone and the marshland, the Erz Gebirge Mountains
with traditions in mining and folklore, the Vogtland, the centre of musical
instrument manufacture or the Oberlausitz with its heath and lake landscape
surrounded with forests are just a few of the places of interest.
This industrialized region is heavily polluted, due to the mining of brown
coal and uranium.