Poland 2009

general Information
Location and area
Poland lies in Central Europe, bordered to the north by
the Baltic Sea. The geographic coordinates of Poland are
latitudes from 49°00’ to 54°50’ N and longitudes from 14°07’
to 24°08’ E. The geometrical centre of Europe lies in the
vicinity of Poland’s capital, Warsaw. Spanning 649 km northto-south
and 689 km east-to-west, Poland is also the site of
the geologic division between the eastern and western
European continental blocks. The total land area of Poland is
312,685 km 2 , with a territorial sea of 8,700 km 2 and another
1,200 km 2 of the inlets of the Oder (Szczecin) Lagoon and
Vistula Lagoon. In terms of area, Poland is the 63 rd largest
country in the world, and the 9 th largest in Europe. The total
length of Poland’s borders is 3,582 km, whereof (clockwise
from north): 528 km is the coastline, 210 km borders on the
Russian Federation, 103 km – Lithuania, 416 km – Belarus,
529 km – Ukraine, 539 km – Slovakia, 790 km – the Czech
Republic and 467 km – Germany.
Poland is in the Central European Time Zone (GMT+1),
along with a number of European countries, including Spain,
France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Slovakia
and Hungary. From March to October Poland observes
Daylight Saving Time (GMT+2).
FILM PRODUCTION GUIDE POLAND 2009
Topography and Landscape
Poland lies in the eastern part of the geomorphological
region of the Northern European Lowlands and thus over
90% of Poland’s area is of a lowland nature. The average
altitude is 173 m, with the highest elevation being the Rysy
peak (2,499 m) of the Tatra Mountains and the lowest
depression lying in the northern region of Żuławy Wiślane
(1.8 m below sea level). There are three key mountain chains
in Poland – the Carpathian, the Sudeten, and the
Świętokrzyskie (sometimes referred to as the Holy Cross
Mountains). At 1,037 km, Vistula is Poland’s longest river.
There are over 9,000 lakes exceeding 1 hectare in size, of
which the deepest are Hańcza (108.5 m), Drawsko, Wielki
Staw Polski, Czarny Staw and Wigry.
The Polish landscape is rather diversified, with a
layered structure of geographical regions. The coastline is
fairly smooth, whereas the coast itself usually flat, with
occasional sand reefs, water inlets, sand dunes, sandy
beaches and also some precipitous cliffs. Northern Poland
abounds in lakes, with the Vistula river separating them into
two regions – Pojezierze Mazurskie (the plentiful region often
called “The Land of the Great Mazurian Lakes”) in the east
and Pojezierze Pomorskie in the west. The central part of
Poland is dominated by the Central Lowlands, with three
distinct regions – Nizina Południowowielkopolska in the
southwest, the Silesian Lowland (Nizina Śląska) in the south
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