The Carnic Alps ( it, Alpi Carniche; german: Karnische Alpen; sl, Karnijske Alpe; fur, Alps Cjargnelis) are a range of the

Southern Limestone Alps The Southern Limestone Alps ( it, Alpi Sud-orientali, german: Südliche Kalkalpen), also called the Southern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps south of the Central Eastern Alps mainly located in northern Italy and the adjacen ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and northeastern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. They are within Austrian

East Tyrol East Tyrol, occasionally East Tirol (german: Osttirol), is an exclave of the Austrian state of Tyrol, separated from the main North Tyrol part by the short common border of Salzburg and Italian South Tyrol (''Südtirol'', it, Alto Adige). It i ...

and

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...

, and Italian

Friuli Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giuli ...

(

Province of Udine The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capita ...

) and marginally in

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

Etymology

They are named after the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

province of

Carnia Carnia ( fur, Cjargne or ''Cjargna''/''Cjargno'' in local variants, vec, Ciargna, german: Karnien, sl, Karnija) is a historical-geographic region in the northeastern Italian area of Friuli. Its 27 municipalities all belong to the Province of U ...

, which probably has a

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic origin. The mountains gave their name to the stage on the

geologic time scale The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochr ...

known as

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Triassic series (stratigraphy), Series (or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Triassic Epoch (reference date), Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227 m ...

, an age in the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest per ...

Period.

Geography

They extend from east to west for about between the

Gail River Gail ( sl, Zilja, it, Zeglia) is the name of a river in southern Austria, the largest right tributary of the Drava. Its drainage basin is . Etymology The name ''Gail'' developed from Old High German ''Gîla'', in turn from the form ''*Gīla'' (wh ...

, a tributary of the

Drava The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...

and the

Tagliamento The Tagliamento () is a braided river in north-east Italy, flowing from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea at a point between Trieste and Venice. The Tagliamento river is considered as the last morphologically intact river in the Alps. (Its c ...

, forming the border between

and

Alpine Club classification

In the Carnic Alps is the southernmost

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

, the

Eiskar The Eiskar is the only existing glacier in the Carnic Alps. It is a typical cirque glacier that, thanks to its shady location and to avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can b ...

, nestling in the Kellerwand massif.

Notable peaks

Among the most important mountains of the range are: * / (2,782 m) * (2,774 m) * / (2,694 m) * / (2,689 m) * (2,603 m) * (2,586 m) * (2,474 m) * (2,462 m) * (2,434 m) *'' Cresta di Enghe'' (2,414 m) *'' Monte Ferro'' (2,348 m) * (2,332 m) * (2,280 m) * (2,187 m)

Mountain passes

The chief passes of the Carnic Alps are: *

Plöcken Pass Plöcken Pass (german: Plöckenpass, it, Passo di Monte Croce Carnico) is a high mountain pass in the Carnic Alps mountain range at the border between the Austrian state of Carinthia and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. It links the m ...

( Tolmezzo to

Kötschach-Mauthen Kötschach-Mauthen ( sl, Koča-Muta) is a market town in the district of Hermagor in Carinthia in Austria. Geography The municipality lies in the west of Hermagor at the transition of the upper Gail Valley into the Lesachtal, between the Gai ...

), road (1,360 m) * Naßfeld Pass (

Pontebba Pontebba ( fur, Ponteibe, german: Pontafel, sl, Tablja) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Geography Pontebba, named after it, ponte meaning "bridge", is situated at the confluenc ...

Hermagor-Pressegger See Hermagor-Pressegger See ( sl, Šmohor-Preseško jezero) is a town in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of the Hermagor District.The town is named after Saint Hermagoras of Aquileia, the first bishop of Aquileia. Geo ...

), road (1,552 m) *Öfnerjoch ( Forni Avoltri to Sankt Lorenzen im

Lesachtal Lesachtal ( sl, Lesna dolina) is a municipality in Hermagor District, in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It comprises the western part of the eponymous valley formed by the upper Gail River, and stretches from the Carinthian border with East Tyr ...

), footpath (2,301 m) *Wolayer Pass (same to Kötschach-Mauthen), footpath (1,922 m)

References

External links

Carnic Alps on SummitPost

Carnic Alps on Hike.uno

Portal and interactive key to the flora of the S Carnic Alps
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of the Alps Southern Limestone Alps Mountain ranges of Italy Mountain ranges of Carinthia (state) * Mountain ranges of Tyrol (state) Mountain ranges of South Tyrol Geography of East Tyrol Province of Udine Triassic Europe