Löss#

Loess, pale-yellow, porous, very fine-grained, limy sedimentary deposit, which was transported by the wind during the Ice Age from the gravel terraces of large rivers, covers large parts of the Weinviertel region and the east border of the Waldviertel region, the Alpine foothills, the Marchfeld region and northern Burgenland. The landscape is characterised by steep incisions in dry valleys ("Racheln") and ravines with vertical walls, which are often shaped into "Kellergassen", narrow streets bordered with wine cellars. At the border of Donautal valley some (particularly near Krems) loess-terraces were formed.

Loess produces nutritious, limy, dry-warm soils which weather into chernozem. In Lower Austria their natural ground vegetation shows typical representatives of dry-ground flourishing Pannonian flora. The fertile loess soils, which are easy to cultivate, favour agricultural activity. Hence the Loess regions are the oldest places of settlement in Austria and have been continuously inhabited since the Stone Age. Today they are mainly used for the cultivation of vine, for which they are particularly favourable, but they also represent the most fertile farmland in Austria, on which mainly wheat and sugar beet is grown.