The Ústí region comprises a range of very different types of landscape. Between the high escarpment of the Ore Mountains () range and the Bohemian Central Uplands with many volcanic hills, there are vast areas devastated by surface coal mining (the North Bohemian Basin), partly being recultivated into an artificial landscape with ponds, plains and groves. The Elbe river runs through the Central Uplands in a winding gorge of the Porta Bohemica. The southern part of the region, Polabí, is flat and fertile, while in the northeast are the sandstone formations of Bohemian Switzerland, including the monumental Pravčická brána, a natural sandstone arch.