By ccodez
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22/12/2022

General in Tichá Šárka, between Divoka and Dolní Šárka

How to do it

To avoid confusion in Šárka nomenclature, sometimes Tichá Šárka is inserted between the upper Divoka Šárka and the lower Dolní Šárka. Some tourist guides use this name to designate a part of the valley that begins under the rocks, approximately at the Devil's Mill, and ends at Jenerálka. Others mean the vicinity of Jenerálka downstream and upstream of the Šárecký stream.

The most interesting thing can be seen just above Jenerálka at the confluence of Šárecké brook and Krutec brook!

Experience from a path through a wet meadow

The most visible is the new attic path through the waterlogged meadow. From it, we can observe life in a meandering stream, reeds in small ponds and a cultivated meadow in a humid valley.

For the record, let's add that a similar trail is still built in Dolní Šárka along the meanders of the Šárecký stream in places between the bus stops Kuliška and Kalinův mlýn.

VIDEO Attic path near the General in Šárka

Iron Ore Mining

A short exploratory tunnel can be seen next to the loft path, at the turn of the red tourist marker. It is a remnant of the search for iron. There was little ore here, so mining never really started here.

Botanical specialties

The inconspicuous rocky ridge above this tunnel is interesting botanically, and is therefore protected as a natural monument of the General. Oaks and hornbeams grow on the oldest Old Mountain slates, and below them are mullein, sedge and sedge.

Mammoth hunters on the outskirts of Prague

However, what we would not think of here in a secluded valley far from the center of Prague and the Vltava valley is hidden from the eyes of visitors. The oldest people lived far and wide on this hill and at its foot. A prehistoric settlement of mammoth hunters was found here.

The ice age was slowly ending, people became hunters, huge animals roamed in Šárka and on the plains above it. It was necessary to wait thousands of years for warming and the associated agricultural revolution. Only then do other people move to the Prague Basin.

Archaeologists found hundreds of chipped tools from the younger Paleolithic (40,000 to 10,000 years BC), bones of prehistoric animals - mammoth, rhinoceros, reindeer, turus and porcupine in the brickyard of F. Baráček on Jenerálka. Today, this former brickyard is called Stará Jenerálka.

The most important discovery was made in 1895 by Jan Nepomuk Woldřich, professor of geology and paleontology at Charles University. He found part of the Early Paleolithic settlement - the remains of hearths and an ash layer with broken animal bones and a large collection of 414 stone tools. His scientific followers, in conjunction with miners, discovered other finds that refined our knowledge of the Paleolithic.

Read more here: Prehistoric settlement in the area and New knowledge about the Paleolithic in Czechoslovakia

If you are not that interested in scientific discoveries, you surely know the book Mammoth Hunters by Eduard Štorch. Part of it takes place right here in the prehistoric General. Here resides the enemy gang that Kopčem and his tribe are fighting.

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