Cheb

Cheb ([ˈxɛp]; German:Eger (help·info)) is a city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic, with 33,256 inhabitants. It is situated on the river Ohře, at the foot of one of the spurs of the Smrčiny and near the border with Germany. Prior to 1945, the town was the centre of the German-speaking region known as Egerland, and was part of the Northern Austro-Bavarian dialect area. The name of the city has changed several times over the years; in 1179 it was known as Egra, from 1322 as Eger and after the fourteenth century as Cheb or Chba. From 1850 it was given the twin official names of Eger and Cheb, and since 1945 it has been known for official purposes exclusively as Cheb. The three world-renowned spa-towns of Karlovy Vary, Marianské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně are located only a few kilometres away from Cheb, and Bavaria in Germany is easily reached by car via the Svatý Kříž-Waldsassen border-crossing. The musically renowned areas of Saxon Vogtland can be accessed via the Kraslice-Klingenthal and Vojtanov-Schönberg crossings. For walkers, wheelchair-users and cyclists, border crossings are present going into Bavaria (Aš-Rehau) and Saxony (Bad Brambach-Plesná, Bad Brambach-Vernéřov, Bad Elster-Podhradí, Markneukirchen-Luby and Hranice-Ebmath). The twin towns of Cheb are Hof in Germany, Rheden in the Netherlands and Nizhny Tagil in Russia. Area Code: + 166