Hohe Tauern#

Hohe Tauern Range, mountain range in the main ridge of the eastern Alps, its mountains consist of gneiss and crystalline slates from the Palaeozoic, covered with Tauern slate ( Tauern Window). They are 130 km long and 50 km wide and run between the Krimmler Ache river, Krimmler Tauern pass (2,633 m) and Ahrntal valley in the west, the Grossarltal valley, Murtoerl mountain (2,260 m), Murwinkel area and Katschberg mountain (1,642 m) in the east, the Salzachtal valley in the north and the Pustertal and Drautal valleys in the south; the Grossglockner (3,798 m) and the Grossvenediger (3,666 m) mountains are part of the Hohe Tauern. The name Hohe Tauern derives from the word "Tauern", a commonly used expression for the passes that separate the highly glaciated range into groups of mountains at an altitude of 2,400-2,700 m: the Venediger massif between the Krimmler Tauern and the Felber Tauern passes, the Granatspitz massif between the Felber Tauern and the Kalser Tauern passes, the Glockner massif between the Kalser Tauern and the Hochtor peak, the Goldberg massif (Sonnberg massif) between the Hochtor and the Niedere Tauern (Mallnitzer Tauern) mountains, the Ankogel massif between the Hohe Tauern (Korntauern) and the Arlscharte col, the Hafnermassif between the Arlscharte and the Katschberg mountain. In the south preceded by the Rieserferner, Schober, Kreuzeck and Reisseck massifs. The valleys leading in a northerly direction to the River Salzach are stepped and characterised by smooth trough walls, waterfalls and gorges (the Liechtensteinklamm, Gasteiner Klamm, Kitzlochklamm and Siegmund-Thun-Klamm gorges), at the glaciated valley heads are numerous small Alpine lakes. The snow line of the Hohe Tauern lies between 2,700 and 2,900 m. A large part of the Hohe Tauern forms part of the Hohe Tauern National Park. The Felbertauern road tunnel, the Grossglockner-Hochalpenstrasse, the Tauern railway tunnel and the Katschberg road tunnel traverse the Hohe Tauern. The mountain range is important both for tourism and for the power industry. The main range of the Hohe Tauern forms the border between Salzburg in the north and Tyrol (South Tyrol and East Tyrol) and Carinthia in the south and, since 1919, a short section of the Austro-Italian border in the far west.