Karavanke or Karawanken (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

) is an Alpine

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 mountain range

Mountain range

A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...

 on the border between Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

 and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. With a total length of 120 km, the Karavanke chain is one of the longest ranges in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

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

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....

 and Carniola

Carniola

Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...

 for almost a thousand years. Before that, they were the southern border of the Slavic principality of Carantania, and of the Roman Noricum

Noricum

Noricum, in ancient geography, was a Celtic kingdom stretching over the area of today's Austria and a part of Slovenia. It became a province of the Roman Empire...

 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

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

. Nowadays both railway

Karawanken Tunnel (railway)

The Karawanken Tunnel is the fourth longest railway tunnel in Austria and the longest in Slovenia with a length of . The railway passes under the Rožca saddle between Rosenbach in southern Austria and Jesenice in northern Slovenia...

 and motorway

Karawanken Tunnel (motorway)

The Karawanken Tunnel is a motorway tunnel crossing the Alpine Karavanke mountain range between Austria and Slovenia, with a total length of , enclosure between the portals.Its construction began in 1986 and it opened on June 1, 1991...

 tunnels are built under the Karavanke, connecting Beljak/Villach

Villach

Villach is the second largest city in the Carinthia state in the southern Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 58,480.-History:...

 and Jesenice.

Karavanke offers a good opportunity for mountaineering

Mountaineering

Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...

 with numerous mountain huts. Many of the peaks offer a good view of the Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

 basin on the Austrian side and the Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

 basin on the Slovene side. The Austrian side is rocky and precipitous while the Slovenian side is less steep, covered with spruce

Spruce

A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

 forests and low bushy pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

 at lower altitudes with grass higher up.

Important peaks

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 include:

• Hochstuhl / Veliki Stol: 2,236 m (7,336 feet)
• Mittagskogel / Kepa
  Kepa, Karavanke
  Kepa is a peak in the Western Karavanke Alps, on the border between Slovenia and Austria.It is the third highest peak in the Karavanke after Stol and Vrtača. Its steep northern face, resembling a rocky pyramid with a rounded summit is a landmark in Carinthia. It is best accessible from the...
  
  : 2,143 m (7,031 feet)
• Petzen / Peca
  Peca (mountain)
  Peca or Petzen is a mountain in the Karavanke Mountains on the Slovenian–Austrian border. The highest peak is on the Slovenian side of the border , while most of the mountain lies in Austria.- External links :...
  
  : 2,113 m (6,943 feet)
• Golica / Kahlkogel
  Golica
  Golica is a peak in the Western Karavanke Alps, on the border between Slovenia and Austria, above the Slovene town of Jesenice. It is known mainly for its fields of wild white narcissi, swathes of which cover Golica and surrounding pastures in late April and early May. This marks the beginning of...
  
  : 1,836 m (6,023 feet)
• Vrtača (2180 m)
• Košuta (2133 m)
• Veliki vrh v Košuti (2088 m)
• Begunjščica (2063m)
• Košutica
  Košutica
  Košutica is a village in the municipality of Sokolac, Bosnia and Herzegovina.-References:...
  
   (1968 m)
• Dovška Baba
  Dovška Baba
  Dovška Baba , , also sometimes known as Dovška Rožca although this actually refers to a pasture some 200 m below the summit, is a peak in the Western Karawanken Alps. It lies on the border between Slovenia and Austria above the village of Dovje. It is known as an ideal peak for ski...
  
   (1892m)
• Klek (1754m)

External links

• Karavanke at Summitpost