The Matk Cirque (), in older sources also the Jezera Valley (''dolina Jezera'') is an Alpine glacial valley in Slovenia.

Geography

The Matk Cirque lies in the upper catchment area of the Savinja River in the

Kamnik–Savinja Alps The Kamnik–Savinja Alps () are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps. They lie in northern Slovenia, except for the northernmost part, which lies in Austria. The western part of the range was named the Kamnik Alps () in 1778 by the sc ...

of Slovenia. The valley floor ranges between and in elevation. It is surrounded by high mountains to the southwest, from Cold Mountain (, ) to the west to Mount Savinjka () to the east. The border between

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

runs along the western ridge, and to the east it borders the Logar Valley. The Matk Cirque is relatively remote and difficult to reach. There is a forest road into it from the Logar Valley, which also connects the farms in it. At the bottom of the valley, this road branches off from the road leading to the former border crossing at the Pavlič Pass (, ; ) in the

Karawanks The Karawanks or Karavankas or Karavanks (; , ) are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps on the border between Slovenia to the south and Austria to the north. With a total length of in an east–west direction, the Karawanks chain is o ...

. The valley is about long and has the most characteristic glacial features in its upper half. Below Cold Mountain in the southwest part of the valley there are well-formed

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

s. The eastern ridge above the valley consists of solid dolomite. The southern part of the valley consists of

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

limestone, and it is only in the north that late

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

impermeable rock is exposed, which is already part of the Karawanks. The valley floor spreads out only in the upper part of the cirque. The valley floor is filled by gravel carried by flashy streams and glacial moraines. Jezera Creek has its source in the middle of the valley; below its spring it has carved out and narrowed the valley, creating the picturesque Lamotje Gorge in the limestone rock where it enters the Logar Valley. During the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

the valley was filled by a glacier that extended to the Logar Valley and joined the glacier there.

Natural monuments

At the head of the Matk Cirque is a cliff known as (), below which is a

snowfield A snow field, snowfield or neve is an accumulation of permanent snow and ice, typically found above the snow line, normally in mountainous and glacial terrain. Glaciers originate in snowfields. The lower end of a glacier is usually free from ...

named Škaf (literally, 'basket, tub'), a natural monument. Water runs onto it through a

couloir A couloir (, "passage" or "corridor") is a narrow gully with a steep gradient in a mountainous terrain.Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, p. 121. . Geology A couloir may be a seam, scar, or fissure, o ...

in the cliff wall, and carves out a large hole in the snow up to deep and across. A hiking trail leads to Škaf. The Matk Window (), a natural window created by erosion, is also visible from the valley floor. It is an oval opening at the top of the ridge between the Logar Valley and the Matk Cirque, measuring high and wide, and with an arch thick.

Settlement

The Matk Cirque has four isolated farms in clearings surrounded by spruce forest. The highest-elevation farm is the Bukovnik farm, at . The valley itself is named after the Matk farm (in standard Slovene ''Matek''),Mišič, Franc. 1937. O ledinskih in hišnih imenih okoli Solčave. ''Casopis za zgodovino in narodopisje'' 33(3–4): 191–201, p. 198. which stands at .Rapoša, Kazimir. 1986. ''Slovenske gore''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 91.

References

Sources

* ''Inventar najpomembnejše naravne dediščine Slovenije (Matkov kot)'', Ljubljana, 1991

External links

The Matk Cirque on Geopedia

Gore-ljudje.net Matkov kot
{{coord, 46, 24, 21, N, 14, 36, 42, E, scale:500000_region:SI, display=title Valleys in Styria (Slovenia) Valleys in the Kamnik–Savinja Alps Savinja basin