Carpathian Mountains

Carpathians
Range
Inner Western Carpathians, High Tatras, Poland
Countries	Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia[1]
Highest point	Gerlachovský štít
- elevation	2,655 m (8,711 ft)
Satellite image of the Carpathians

The Carpathian Mountains or the Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly 1,500 km (932 mi) long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second longest mountain range in Europe (after the Scandinavian Mountains, 1,700 km (1,056 mi)). They provide the habitat for the largest European populations of brown bears, wolves, chamois and lynxes, with the highest concentration in Romania,^[2][3][4] as well as over one third of all European plant species.^[5]

The chain of mountain ranges stretches in an arc from the Czech Republic (3%) in the northwest to Slovakia (17%), Poland (10%), Hungary (4%), Ukraine (11%) and Romania (55%) in the east, to the Iron Gates on the River Danube between Romania and Serbia in the south. The highest range within the Carpathians are the Tatras, on the border of Poland and Slovakia, where the highest peaks exceed 2,600 m (8,530 ft), followed by the Southern Carpathians in Romania, where the highest peaks exceed 2,500 m (8,202 ft).

The Carpathian chain is usually divided into three major parts: the Western Carpathians (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia), the Eastern Carpathians (southeastern Poland, eastern Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania), and the Southern Carpathians (Romania, Serbia).^[1]

The most important cities in or near the Carpathians are Bratislava and Košice in Slovakia; Kraków in Poland; Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Braşov in Romania; and Miskolc in Hungary.

Name

Hoverla in Ukraine.

The range is called Karpaty in Czech, Polish and Slovak, Karpaten in German and Dutch, Kárpátok in Hungarian, Carpaţi in Romanian, Karpaty (Карпаты) in Russian, Karpati (Карпати) in Serbian and Karpaty (Карпати) in Ukrainian.

The name 'Karpetes' may ultimately be from the Proto Indo-European root *sker-/*ker-, from which comes the Albanian word karpë (rock), and Bulgarian word skála (rock, cliff). perhaps by Dacian cognate which meant 'mountain,' rock, or rugged (cf. Germanic root *skerp-, Old Norse harfr "harrow", Middle Low German scharf "potsherd", Old English scearp and English sharp, Lithuanian kar~pas "cut, hack, notch", Latvian cìrpt "to shear, clip"). Archaic Polish word karpa meant "rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, rugged roots or trunks". The more common word skarpa is sharp cliff or other vertical terrain. Otherwise, the name may instead come from IE *kwerp "to turn", akin to Old English hweorfan "to turn, change" (English warp) and Greek καρπός karpós "wrist", perhaps referring to the way the mountain range bends or veers in an L-shape^[6]. Also car means "king" and pati "road" so carpati is possibly the king's way. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "Carpathian" is derived from Greek Καρπάτῆς όρος Karpates oros meaning "rocky mountain." ^[7]

In late Roman documents, the Eastern Carpathian Mountains were referred to as Montes Sarmatici. The Western Carpathians were called Carpates. The name Carpates is first recorded in Ptolemy's second century book Geographia. Around 310 AD the Carpathians are mentioned as Montes Serrorum by the Flavius Galerius Valerius Licinianus Licinius.

The name of the Carpi, a Dacians tribe may have been derived from the name of the Carpathian Mountains. Name recorded in late Roman Empire documents (Zosimus) as living until 381 on the eastern Carpathian slopes. Alternatively the mountain range's name may be derived from the Dacian tribe.

13th-14th century Hungarian documents named the mountains Thorchal, Tarczal or less frequently Montes Nivium.

In the Scandinavian Hervarar saga, which describes ancient Germanic legends about battles between Goths and Huns, the name Karpates appears in the predictable Germanic form as Harvaða fjöllum (see Grimm's law).

Geography

Lake Bucura, Southern Carpathians, Romania.

The Carpathians begin on the Danube near Bratislava. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the south-east, and end on the Danube near Orşova, in Romania. The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km (932 mi), and the mountain chain's width varies between 12 and 500 km (7 and 311 mi). The greatest width of the Carpathians corresponds with its highest altitudes. The system attains its greatest breadth in the Transylvanian plateau and in the meridian of the Tatra group (the highest range, with Gerlachovský štít, at 2,655 m (8,705 feet) above sea level in Slovak territory). It covers an area of 190,000 km² (73,359 sq mi) and, after the Alps, is the most extensive mountain system in Europe.

Although commonly referred to as a mountain chain, the Carpathians do not actually form an uninterrupted chain of mountains. Rather, they consist of several orographically and geologically distinctive groups, presenting as great a structural variety as the Alps. The Carpathians, which in only a few places attain an altitude of over 2,500 m (8,202 ft), lack the bold peaks, extensive snow-fields, large glaciers, high waterfalls, and numerous large lakes that are common in the Alps. No area of the Carpathian range is covered in snow year-round and there are no glaciers. The Carpathians at their highest altitude are only as high as 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. The two ranges meet only at one point: the Leitha Mountains at Bratislava. The river also separates them from the Stara Planina, or "Balkan Mountains," at Orşova, Romania. The valley of the March and Oder separates the Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian chains, which belong to the middle wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe. Unlike the other wings of the system, the Carpathians, which form the watershed between the northern seas and the Black Sea, are surrounded on all sides by plains, namely the Pannonian plain on the southwest, the plain of the Lower Danube (Romania) on the south, and the Galician plain on the northeast.

Cities and towns

Important cities and towns in or near the Carpathians are, ordered by decreasing population: Bratislava (Slovakia, 426,091), Cluj-Napoca (Romania, 310,243), Braşov (Romania, 278,003), Košice (Slovakia, 234,596), Oradea (Romania, 206,614), Miskolc (Hungary, 178,950), Sibiu (Romania, 154,892), Târgu Mureş (Romania, 146,000), Baia Mare (Romania, 137,976), Tarnów (Poland, 117,109), Râmnicu Vâlcea (Romania, 111,497), Uzhhorod (Ukraine, 111,300), Piatra Neamţ (Romania, 105,865), Suceava (Romania, 104,914), Drobeta-Turnu Severin (Romania, 104,557), Reşiţa (Romania, 86,383), Žilina (Slovakia, 85,477), Bistriţa (Romania, 81,467), Banská Bystrica (Slovakia, 80,730), Deva (Romania, 80,000), Zlín (Czech Republic, 79,538), Hunedoara (Romania, 79,235), Zalău (Romania, 71,326), Przemyśl (Poland, 66,715), Alba Iulia (Romania, 66,369), Zaječar (Serbia, 65,969), Sfântu Gheorghe (Romania, 61,543), Turda (Romania, 57,381), Bor (Serbia, 55,817), Mediaş (Romania, 55,153), Poprad (Slovakia, 55,042), Petroşani (Romania, 45,194), Negotin (Serbia, 43,551), Miercurea Ciuc (Romania, 42,029), Făgăraş (Romania, 40,126), Odorheiu Secuiesc (Romania, 36,926), Petrila (Romania, 33,123), Sighişoara (Romania, 32,287), Zakopane (Poland, 27,486), Câmpulung Moldovenesc (Romania, 20,076), Gheorgheni (Romania, 20,018), Vatra Dornei (Romania, 17,864), and Rakhiv (Ukraine, 15,241).

Mountain passes

In the Romanian part of the Carpathians main chain the most important mountain passes are (starting from the Ukrainian border) Prislop Pass, Rodna Pass, Tihuţa Pass (also known as Borgo Pass), Tulgheş Pass, Bicaz Pass, Ghimeş Pass, Uz Pass and Oituz Pass, Buzău Pass, Predeal Pass, crossed by the railway from Braşov to Bucharest, Turnu Roşu Pass (1,115 ft.) through the narrow gorge of the Olt, crossed by the railway from Sibiu to Bucharest, Vulcan Pass, Teregova Pass, and the Iron Gate, both crossed by the railway from Timişoara to Craiova.

Geology

The Carpathian Mountains were formed during the Alpine orogeny.

Divisions of the Carpathians

Map of the main divisions of the Carpathians.
1. Outer Western Carpathians
2. Inner Western Carpathians
3. Outer Eastern Carpathians
4. Inner Eastern Carpathians
5. Southern Carpathians
6. Western Romanian Carpathians
7. Transylvanian Plateau
8. Serbian Carpathians

The largest range is the Tatras.

A major part of the western and northeastern Outer Carpathians in Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia is traditionally called Beskids.

The geological border between the Western and Eastern Carpathians runs approximately along the line (south to north) between the towns Michalovce - Bardejov - Nowy Sącz - Tarnów. In older systems the border runs more in the east – at the line (north to south) along the rivers San and Osława (PL) – the town of Snina (SK) – river Tur'ia (UA). Biologists, however, shift the border even further to the east.

The border between the Eastern and Southern Carpathians is formed by the Predeal Pass, south of Braşov and the Prahova Valley.

The Ukrainians sometimes denote as "Eastern Carpathians" only the Ukrainian Carpathians (or Wooded Carpathians), i.e., basically the part situated largely on their territory (i.e., to the north of the Prislop Pass), while the Romanians sometimes denote as "Eastern Carpathians" only the other part, which lies on their territory (i.e., from the Ukrainian border or from the Prislop Pass to the south).

Also, the Romanians divide the Eastern Carpathians on their territory into three simplified geographical groups (north, center, south), instead of Outer and Inner Eastern Carpathians. These are:

• Carpathians of Maramureş and Bukovina (Romanian: Carpaţii Maramureşului şi ai Bucovinei)
• Moldavian-Transylvanian Carpathians (Romanian: Carpaţii Moldo-Transilvani)
• Curvature Carpathians (Romanian: Carpaţii Curburii, Carpaţii de Curbură)

Also included are the Călimani Mountains and Pietrosu Peak.

Notable people

• Ludwig Greiner, identified Gerlachovský Peak as the highest mountain in the Carpathians.

See also

• Transylvania

References

External links

• The Framework Convention for the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians
• Pictures and images from the Romanian Carpathians
• Orographic map highlighting Carpathian mountains
• Alpinet - Romanian mountain guide
• Carpati.org - Romanian mountain guide

Carpathian Mountains Regions Inner Western · Outer Western · Inner North-Eastern · Outer North-Eastern · Inner Eastern  · Outer Eastern · Transylvanian Alps · Apuseni · South-Western · Transylvanian Plateau · Serbian Carpathians

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