Říp Mountain (also known as Říp Hill; ; ) is a high solitary hill located 20 km south-east of Litoměřice, Czech Republic. According to national legend, it is the place where the first Czechs settled. The mountain and the rotunda on its top are among the Czech national cultural monuments. Říp, being visible from great distance, has always been an important orientation point in the Bohemian scenery and has attracted attention since the oldest times. Geomorphology In terms of geomorphological division, Říp is located in a flatland of the Lower Eger Table within the Central Bohemian Table macroregion, and is the highest peak of this entire macroregion. Geology Geologically, Říp is the erosional remnant of a late Oligocene volcano and is composed of basalt nephelites containing olivine granules, amphibole, leucite and – among others – magnetite, so a local magnetic anomaly can even be observed there by the compass. Nature The hill was bare until 1879 when Mořic Lobkowitz had it planted with trees. Today, almost all of the mountain is covered by an oak-and-hornbeam forest with some maple, pine ash, and linden trees. Some rare thermophile plants can be found at the few tree-less places on the top of the hill, such as Gagea bohemica and Iris pumila. Name The name of the mountain is of pre-Slavic origin and probably comes from the Old-Germanic stem ríp- (elevation, hill), which has the Latin parallel in the word rípa (shore, slope, hillside). Some linguists also derive the origin of the name from the Illyrian-Thracian base. Legend According to a traditional legend, first recorded by the ancient Czech chronicler Cosmas of Prague in the early 12th century, Říp was the place where the first Slavs, led by Forefather Čech, settled. According to the Chronicle of Dalimil from 1310, when Čech and his people climbed Říp Mountain, he looked upon the landscape and told his brothers that they have reached the promised land: "We have a country at our will, here will be our tables always full, enough of wild animals, birds, fish, bees and hardness against enemies." The land was named after the leader. In the 16th century, the legend was revived by Václav Hájek of Libočany who claimed that Čech was buried in the nearby village of Ctiněves and, later on, by Alois Jirásek in his Old Bohemian Legends from 1894. Buildings On top of the hill there is a romanesque