User:Karen Cardinal

A kraj (plural: kraje) is the highest-level administrative unit in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and historically in Czechoslovakia.

For lack of other English expressions, the term is often translated as region, territory, or province, although it actually approximately means "(part of) country", "(part of) countryside", "county", "shire".

A kraj is subdivided into okresy (districts).

The first "kraje" were created in 1949 in Czechoslovakia and still exist today (except for the early 1990's) despite many rearrangements.