Karavanke

Karavanke
Karawanken
Range
View to the eastern part of Karavanke from Stol / Hochstuhl
Countries	Slovenia, Austria
Part of	Southern Limestone Alps
Highest point	Hochstuhl / Veliki Stol
- elevation	2,236 m (7,336 ft)
- coordinates	46°26′3″N 14°10′24″E
Location of Karavanke (west) and Pohorje (east)

Karavanke (Slovene) or Karawanken (German) is an Alpine mountain range on the border between Slovenia and Austria. With a total length of 120 km, the Karavanke chain is one of the longest ranges in Europe.

Together with the Kamnik–Savinja Alps, the Karavanke chain forms a natural border between Austria and Slovenia: they represent one of the oldest administrative borders in Europe, since they served as a border between Carinthia and Carniola for almost a thousand years. Before that, they were the southern border of the Slavic principality of Carantania, and of the Roman Noricum province before that.

. A number of mountain passes on important trade routes cross the range. One of them, the Loiblpass (German) or Ljubelj (Slovenian) at 1370 m has been used since prehistory. Nowadays both railway and motorway tunnels are built under the Karavanke, connecting Beljak/Villach and Jesenice.

Karavanke offers a good opportunity for mountaineering with numerous mountain huts. Many of the peaks offer a good view of the Klagenfurt basin on the Austrian side and the Ljubljana basin on the Slovene side. The Austrian side is rocky and precipitous while the Slovenian side is less steep, covered with spruce forests and low bushy pine at lower altitudes with grass higher up.

Important peaks include:

• Hochstuhl / Veliki Stol: 2,236 m (7,336 feet)
• Mittagskogel / Kepa: 2,143 m (7,031 feet)
• Petzen / Peca: 2,113 m (6,943 feet)
• Golica / Kahlkogel: 1,836 m (6,023 feet)
• Vrtača (2180 m)
• Košuta (2,133 m)
• Veliki vrh v Košuti (2,088 m)
• Begunjščica (2063m)
• Košutica (1,968 m)
• Dovška Baba (1,892m)
• Klek (1,754m)

External links

• Karavanke at Summitpost