Pohorje (), also known as the Pohorje Massif or the Pohorje Mountains (german: Bachergebirge, ''Bacherngebirge'' or often simply ''Bachern''), is a mostly wooded, medium-high

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have ari ...

south of the

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

River in northeastern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

. According to the traditional AVE classification it belongs to the Southern Limestone Alps. Geologically, it forms part of the Central Alps and features

silicate In chemistry, a silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is a ...

metamorphic and

igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma o ...

. Pohorje is sparsely populated with dispersed villages. There are also some ski resorts.

Geography

Pohorje is an

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...

mountain ridge with domed summits south of the Drava. It roughly lies in the triangle formed by the towns of

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, the seat of the Drava sta ...

(to the east), Dravograd (to the west) and Slovenske Konjice (to the south). To the northwest, it is bounded by the Mislinja River, to the south by the Vitanje Lowlands (), to the east it descends to the Drava Plain () and to the southeast it descends to the Pohorje Foothills (). It measures about from east to west and from north to south and covers an area of ca. . Its highest elevations are Black Peak ( sl, Črni Vrh, german: Schwarzkogel) , the only slightly lower Big Kopa Peak (), and Lake Peak (), which rises to . Forests cover over 70% of its surface.

Geology

Pohorje is a young mountain massif and is the southeasternmost part of the Central Alps. It is the only mountain chain in Slovenia made of silicate rock. Its peripheral parts consist of

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ...

metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...

, and its central parts of

, particularly granodiorite (known also as the Pohorje tonalite) and

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained ( aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyo ...

. Near the village of

Cezlak Cezlak () is a small settlement on the southern slope of the Pohorje range in the Municipality of Slovenska Bistrica in northeastern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. It is now included with the rest of the municipal ...

lies probably the only known deposit of cizlakite (quartz monzogabbro; a green plutonic rock). The southern parts of Pohorje are known for white marble, which was quarried in Roman times.

Pohorje ski resorts

The following ski resorts stand at Pohorje: * Rogla Ski Resort *

Kope–Ribnica Pohorje Ski Resort Kope–Ribnica Pohorje Ski Resort ( sl, Smučišče Kope–Ribniško Pohorje) is a joined Slovenian ski resort located in western part of Pohorje mountain in municipality of Slovenj Gradec and Ribnica na Pohorju Ribnica na Pohorju () is a sett ...

Maribor Pohorje Ski Resort Maribor Pohorje Ski Resort ( sl, Smučišče Mariborsko Pohorje) is the largest ski resort in Slovenia, located just south of Maribor, at the mountain range of Pohorje in Lower Styria. The resort consists of three sections: lower section "''S ...

Trije Kralji Ski Resort Trije Kralji Ski Resort is a Slovenian family ski resort located in western part of Pohorje mountain in municipality of Slovenska Bistrica Slovenska Bistrica (; german: Windisch-Feistritz) is a town south of Maribor in eastern Slovenia. It ...

Radio towers

Near hilltops within the mountain range are located a TV and radio transmitter Pohorje and a military air-traffic control radar station RP-2.

References

External links

*
Pohorje
Tourist Information Centre Maribor. {{Authority control Mountain ranges of the Alps Mountain ranges of Slovenia Southern Limestone Alps Natura 2000 in Slovenia