Říp hill. This ancient volcano dominating the flat landscape is the most important place in Czech national myth. According to legend, here the first Czechs settled. The hill and early 11th-century Romanesque rotunda on its top are Czech national cultural monuments.
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[reading](https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%98%C3%ADp):
> The top of Říp with the Romanesque rotunda of St. George rises about 200 metres above the surrounding flat landscape. Říp is a memorable place of Czech mythology and history. According to legend, the forefather of Czech tribe came here, overlooked the surrounding landscape and decided to settle here. Říp Hill with its rotunda is protected as a national cultural monument.
> **Geology**
> It is a remnant of the core of a Tertiary volcano that rose to a height of more than 1 km above the level of today’s peak. The local sodalitic nepheline basalt contains not only olivine but also magnetovite, which causes local magnetic anomalies that are manifested by deviations of the compass needle. At the foot of Říp there are three springs, of which the eastern one has always been considered medicinal.
> **History**
> The striking peak has attracted people’s attention since the earliest times and was an important landmark in the flat landscape. The name is Indo-European and its origin dates back to the Bronze Age. It simply means Mountain. It is based on the Celtic “rib”, i.e. “rib of the earth.” The word Říp is identical with the Old Germanic rīp – rock, mountain. The versified German translation of the 14th century Chronicle of Dalimilus speaks of Rieff.
> **Legends**
> Legend, first recorded in the early 12th century by the chronicler Kosmas, considers Mount Říp (Rip) and its surroundings to be the place where the first Slavic people, led by their forefather Čech, settled on their arrival in their new homeland, and where the ritual “taking possession” of the surrounding land took place, culminating in its renaming after the leader of these Slavs, Čech (Boemus in Latin). However, in early Slavic times, the area of Říp was uninhabited, probably due to a lack of water. The mountain, however, lay exactly in the centre of the Slavic settlement of Bohemia at that time, and the horizon that could be seen from its summit also formed the boundary of this settlement.
> **Curiosities**
> * In 1868, one of the cornerstones of the National Theatre was picked up here and ceremoniously transported to Prague. It was escorted to Prague by 300 horsemen and the road was lined with a procession of bridesmaids with baskets full of flowers.
> * In 1907, the Boum tourist cottage was built in the vicinity of the rotunda and it still serves as a restaurant for visitors. The patriotic inscription “What Mecca is to Mohammed, Říp is to Czech” is affixed on the wall of the lodge.
It needs to be said that Říp used to be completely bereft of any trees for most of its history. In the 19th century, completely against any reasonable judgement, the National Revivalists decided to plant a forest all over the hill and forever ruined the amazing view the hill would’ve otherwise commanded
RIP hill. How did it die?
Has to be a buried spaceship under there, like it couldn’t be more perfect.
Mount Fuji from Wish