The Mieming Plateau ({{langx, de, Mieminger Plateau) is a mountain terrace between 850 and 1000 metres high above the Upper

Inn valley The Inn (; ; ) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The long river is a right tributary of the Danube, being the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is the summit of Piz Bernin ...

in the

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 ...

n state of

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

at the southern foot of the

Mieming Chain The Mieming(er) Range, Mieminger Chain () or Mieminger Mountains (''Mieminger Gebirge''), is a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps in the Eastern Alps. It is located entirely in Austria within the state of Tyrol (Bundesland), Tyrol. ...

. It lies in the municipalities of Wildermieming,

Mieming Mieming () is a municipality in the Imst district and is located 19 km east of Imst and 6 km west of Telfs Telfs is a market town in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol, west of Innsbruck. It is the third la ...

Obsteig Obsteig is a municipality in the Imst district and is located 15 km northeast of Imst and 3 km above Mötz. The village has 14 parts and is a popular area for skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a ...

and Mötz. The low mountain terrace is composed of

ground moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice she ...

s and gravels, probably from the

Würm glaciation The Würm glaciation or Würm stage ( or ''Würm-Glazial'', colloquially often also ''Würmeiszeit'' or ''Würmzeit''; cf. ice age), usually referred to in the literature as the Würm (often spelled "Wurm"), was the last glacial period in the ...

. In the south the terrace is bounded by the so-called Achberg range (''Achbergzug''), a chain of mountains made of

main dolomite Main Dolomite (, , ) is a lithostratigraphic unit in the Alps of Europe. Formation was defined by K.W. Gümbel in 1857. Middle to Late Triassic sedimentary record in the Alpine realm is characterized by presence of various masses of dolomitic r ...

, the other side of which is the Inn valley. The plateau is about 14 kilometres long and up to 4 kilometres wide. Except near

Telfs Telfs is a market town in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol, west of Innsbruck. It is the third largest municipality in Tyrol. Telfs received its status in 1908 and maintains its own district court. Population Refe ...

and Mötz it drops steeply 200 metres down to the Inn valley and ends in the west at the Holzleiten Saddle, where the road continues to the Gurgltal and the

Fern Pass Fern Pass (elevation 1212 m) is a mountain pass in the Tyrolean Alps in Austria. It is located between the Lechtal Alps on the west and the Mieming Mountains on the east. The highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze is only 13.5 km away to t ...

section. From Telfs and Mötz there are transit routes that have probably been used since

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

(

Via Claudia Augusta The Via Claudia Augusta is an ancient Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia (encompassing parts of modern Eastern Switzerland, Northern Italy, Western Austria, Southern Germany and all of Liechtenstein) across the Alp ...

), as evinced by an undated

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

near Holzleiten, that run across the plateau to the

and on towards

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

. The region is characterised by its small-scale division into fields of pasture and crops that alternate with larch meadows and open forest. A network of walking paths and cycleways, and in winter

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

routes, criss-crosses the plateau, making it a popular recreation area. The fictitious village of ''Sonnenstein'' in the TV series '' Bergdoktor'' ("Mountain Doctor") is set on the plateau.

External links

Sonnenplateau Mieming & Tirol Mitte
Tourist Association Innsbruck and its holiday villages, official website
Mieming Plateau
private website
Mieming Plateau Protected Area
Tyrol Regions of Tyrol (federal state) Mieming Range