Traun () is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

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

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

. Its source is in the

Totes Gebirge The Totes Gebirge, also known in English as the Dead Mountains, is a mountain range in Austria that forms part of the Northern Limestone Alps, lying between the Salzkammergut and the Ennstaler Alpen. The name ''Totes Gebirge'' is supposedly der ...

mountain range in

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

. It flows through the

Salzkammergut The Salzkammergut (, ; ) is a resort area in Austria, stretching from the city of Salzburg eastwards along the Alpine Foreland and the Northern Limestone Alps to the peaks of the Dachstein Mountains. The main river of the region is the Traun (r ...

area and the lakes

Hallstätter See Hallstätter See or Lake Hallstatt is a lake in Salzkammergut, Austria. It is named after Hallstatt, a small market town famous for its salt mining since prehistoric times and for being the starting point of the world's oldest still-working indu ...

and

Traunsee Traunsee ( , ) is a lake in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, Austria. Its surface is approximately 24.5 km2 and its maximum depth of 191 metres makes it the deepest and by volume largest lake located entirely within Austrian territory; only ...

. The Traun is a right tributary of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, which it meets near the city of

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

. Other towns along the river are

Bad Aussee Bad Aussee (; Central Bavarian: ''Bod Ossee'') is a town in the Austrian state of Styria, located at the confluence of the three sources of the Traun River in the Ausseerland region. Bad Aussee serves as the economic and cultural center of the St ...

Bad Ischl Bad Ischl (Austrian German ) is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the river Traun in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden ''Ahorn'', ''Bad Ischl'', ''Haiden ...

Gmunden Gmunden () is a town in Upper Austria, in the district of Gmunden (district), Gmunden. It has 13,204 inhabitants (estimates 2016 ). Geography Gmunden covers an area of and has a median elevation of . It is situated next to the lake Traunsee on t ...

Wels Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the List of cities and towns in Austria, eighth largest city in Aus ...

and

Traun Traun () is an Austrian municipality located on the north bank of the Traun (river), river Traun and borders Linz, the capital of Upper Austria, to the east. The name ''Traun'' is derived from the Celtic word for river (). Traun is the fifth la ...

. The Traun is long, and has a basin area of . Its average discharge at the

mouth A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...

is . Until the late 19th century, it was only possible to reach

Hallstatt Hallstatt () is a small town in the district of Gmunden District, Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Sa ...

(at the Hallstätter See) by boat or via narrow trails. However, this secluded and inhospitable landscape nevertheless counts as one of the first places of human settlement due to the rich sources of natural salt, which was mined for thousands of years, originally in the shape of hearts. Some of Hallstatt's oldest archaeological finds, such as a shoe-last celt – a long thin stone tool used to fell trees and to work wood – date back to around 5000 B.C. One of the first blacksmith's sites was excavated there. Active trade and thus wealth allowed for the development of a highly sophisticated society, hence the term

Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallst ...

. In 1846, a large prehistoric cemetery was discovered close by the current location of Hallstatt. There is little room for cemeteries so every ten years bones used to be exhumed and removed into an ossuary to make room for new burials. A collection of elaborately decorated skulls with the owners' names, professions, death dates inscribed on them is on display at the local chapel.

References

Gallery

Image:Tussen Au en Steeg, bij de Traun foto3 2011-07-28 15.34.jpg, The river Traun between and (two districts of

Bad Goisern Bad or BAD may refer to: Common meanings *Evil, the opposite of moral good *Error, Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect *Unhealthy, or counter to well-being *Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good Acronyms * BAD-2, a Soviet armored tr ...

) Image:Lauffen, de Traun foto4 2011-07-29 10.14.jpg, The Traun near

Lauffen Lauffen am Neckar (, ) or simply Lauffen is a town in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is on the river Neckar, southwest of Heilbronn. The town is famous as the birthplace of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin and for its q ...

Rivers of Upper Austria Braided rivers in Europe Rivers of Austria {{Austria-river-stub