Carpathian mountains

The Carpathian Mountains are a mountain system in Eastern Europe that forms a great arc 1,500 km long and about 150 km wide on average, along the borders of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and northern Hungary, which makes it the second longest mountain range in Europe after the Scandinavian Alps, with 1,700 km. The Carpathians are home to the largest European populations of brown bears, European wolves, chamois and lynxes, with the highest concentration in Romania, and more than a third of all plant species in Europe. The Carpathians and their foothills it also concentrates thermal and mineral waters. Romania is home to a third of Europe's total of these waters and is the second country with the largest area of virgin forests on the continent after Russia, with 250,000 hectares (65%), of which most of it is in the Carpathians. The Southern Carpathians constitute the largest unfragmented area in Europe.

The mountain system is made up of ranges that arc from the Czech Republic (3%) northwest through Slovakia (17%), Poland (10%), Hungary (4%) and Ukraine (11%) to Romania (53%) to the east and at the Iron Gates on the Danube between Romania and Serbia (2%) to the south. The highest mountain range in the Carpathians is the Tatras, on the border between Poland and Slovakia, where its highest peak exceeds 2,600 meters. The second highest peak is in the Romanian Eastern Carpathians at 2,500 meters.

The Carpathians are normally divided into three main parts: the Western Carpathians (Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia), the Central (Southeastern Poland, Eastern Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania) and the Eastern (Romania and Serbia). The most important cities in the Carpathians are Bratislava and Košice, in Slovakia; Krakow in Poland; Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Braşov in Romania; and Miskolc in Hungary.

Toponymy

The names of the Carpathians in the Central European languages are: German and Dutch: Karpaten; Czech, Polish, and Slovak: Karpaty; Serbian: Карпати / Karpati; Hungarian: Kárpátok; Romanian: Carpați; and Ukrainian: Карпати (Karpaty).

The name is most likely derived from the Carpi, a tribe of Dacians who, as attested by Zosimus in the last documents of the Roman Empire, inhabited the slopes of the Eastern Carpathians until the year 381. Another theory holds that the The name of the tribe could have been derived from the name of the mountains. The name “Karpetes” may ultimately come from the Proto-Indo-European root *sker-/*ker- from which the Albanian word “karpë” (rock) derives, perhaps from a Dacian word meaning “mountain”, the “ rock”, or “rough”. In late Roman documents, the eastern Carpathian mountains were referred to as Montes Sarmatici. The Western Carpathians were called Carpathians. The first known mention of Carpates appears in Claudius Ptolemy's Geography. In official Hungarian documents of the centuries XIII and XIV, the Carpathians are named Thorchal or Tarczal, or the Latinism Montes Nivium.

Geography

More contrasted in this image: the Eastern Romanian Carpathians.

Świnica in Upper Tatra (Poland).

Mounts Ciucaș, in the Curvature of the Carpathians of Romania.

The Carpaths at the western end of Ukraine.

Topographic map of the Carpathians, which extend through several countries of the center and east of Europe.

The Carpathians begin on the Danube near Bratislava. They encircle Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping southwest, and end at the Danube near Orşova, in Romania so that the Iron Gates separate the Carpathians from the Balkan Mountains.

The total length of the Carpathians is about 1,500 kilometers. The width of the chain of these mountains varies between 12 and 500 kilometers. The greatest width of the Carpathians corresponds to its greatest height. The system reaches its maximum width in the Transylvanian plateau, and in the meridian of the Tatra Mountains (the highest point or summit of the Carpathians is in Gerlachovský štít, at 2,655 m above sea level in Slovak territory). The Carpathian area covers an area of about 190,000 km², and after the Alps, it is the largest mountain system in Europe. Although commonly referred to as a mountain range, the Carpathians do not actually form an unbroken chain of mountains. Rather, they are several orographically and geologically distinct groups, presenting a structural variety comparable to that of the Alps.

The Carpathians, which only reach an altitude of over 2,500m in some places, lack the great glaciers, steep peaks, extensive snow-covered areas and numerous immense lakes that are common in the Alps. No area of the Carpathian Sierra has perpetual snow, and there are no glaciers. The Carpathians at their highest altitude only reach a height like that of the middle region of the Alps, with which they share a common appearance, climate, and flora.

The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by the Danube River. The two mountain ranges intersect at only one point: the Leitha Mountains in Bratislava. The aforementioned river also separates the Stara Planina, or Balkan Mountains in Orşova, an area of the Iron Gates gorge in Romania.

The Oder Valley and the Moravian Gates (or Moravská Brana) separate the Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian mountain ranges, which belong to the middle wing of the great central European massif. Unlike the other wings of the system, the Carpathians, which form the watershed between the northern seas (North Sea, Baltic Sea) and the Black Sea, are surrounded on all sides by plains, namely the plain Pannonian in the southwest, the Lower Danube Plain (Romania) in the south, and the Galitsian Plain in the northeast.

The mountain range served as a border for various states, including the kingdom of the Magyars, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Roman Empire.

Highest Peaks

This list includes the highest peaks in the Carpathians (those higher than 2,500 meters), their height, geological division, and location.

Mountain passes

In the Romanian part of the Carpathians, the most important passes or mountain passes are (starting from the Ukrainian border) the Prislop pass, the Rodna, the Borgo gorge (also known as Tihuţa), the Tulgheş, the canyon Bicaz, Ghimeş Pass, Uz and Oituz, Buzău Pass, Predeal Pass (crossed by train from Braşov to Bucharest), Turnu Roşu Pass (crossing through the narrow gorge of the Olt River and crossing the train from Sibiu to Bucharest), the Vulcan Pass, the Teregova Pass and the Iron Gates (crossed by train from Timişoara to Craiova).

The main mountain passes will be listed below, taking as reference digital maps, printed maps and online instruments.

Convention on the Protection of the Carpathians

The Framework Convention for the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians was signed in 2003 by the seven participating States, following an international consultative process facilitated by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Divisions

The various parts of the Carpathians
Big divisions of the massif: 1External Western Carpaths 2Western interiors 3Outer Eastern Charters 4Inner Eastern Carpathies 5Southern Western Carpathies 6Romanian Western Carpaths 7Transylvania Plateau 8Serbian charter Rios: * a: Vistula * b: Danube * c: Tisza * d: Sava * e: Dniester * f: Prut Countries: * CZ: Czech Republic * PL: Poland * UA: Ukraine * AT: Austria * SK: Slovakia * HU: Hungary * RORORomania HR: Croatia * BA: Bosnia-Herzegovina * RSSerbia * BGBulgaria

Horizontal divisions

• External eyelids (External Western Carpaths and Eastern Carpaths, usually included the corresponding external eyelids)
• Internal Carpathies (Internal Western Carpathies, Eastern Carpathians and all remaining Carpathians) An important part of the Western and North-Eastern External Carpathies is traditionally called Beskides.

Vertical divisions and general division