Tatra Mountains - Overview

Overview

The Tatras are a mountain range of a corrugated nature, originating from the Alpine orogeny, and therefore characterized by a relatively young-look lay of the land, quite similar to the landscape of the Alps, although significantly smaller. It is the highest mountain range within Carpathians. It consists of the internal mountain chains of:

• Western Tatras (Slovak: Západné Tatry, Polish: Tatry Zachodnie)
• Eastern Tatras (Východné Tatry, Tatry Wschodnie), which in turn consist of:
  • the High Tatras (Vysoké Tatry, Tatry Wysokie)
  • and Belianske Tatras (Belianske Tatry, Tatry Bielskie)

The overall nature of the Tatras, together with their easy accessibility, makes them a favorite with tourists and researchers. Therefore, these mountains are a popular winter sports area, with resorts such as Zakopane, called also "winter capital of Poland", Poprad and the town Vysoké Tatry (The Town of High Tatras) in Slovakia created in 1999, including former separate resorts: Štrbské Pleso, Starý Smokovec, and Tatranská Lomnica. The High Tatras, with their 24 (or 25) peaks exceeding 2,500 m above sea level, together with the Southern Carpathians, represent the only form of alpine landscape in the entire 1200 km length of arc of the Carpathians.

The Tatras should be distinguished from another Slovak mountain range, the Low Tatras, Slovak: Nízke Tatry, located south of the Tatras. Sometimes, Tatras is a term used either for the Tatras and for the Low Tatras.