The Podtatranská kotlina (literally Sub-Tatra Basin or Basin under Tatra(s)) is a basin in northern

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, part of the

Fatra-Tatra Area The Fatra-Tatra Area (in geomorphology) or the Tatra-Fatra Belt of core mountains (in geology) is a part of the Inner Western Carpathians, a subprovince of the Western Carpathians. Most of the area lies in Slovakia with small parts reaching into A ...

, which belongs to the

Inner Western Carpathians Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya ...

. Towns and cities include Ružomberok,

Liptovský Mikuláš Liptovský Mikuláš (; until 1952 ''Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš'', german: Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus; hu, Liptószentmiklós) is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River, about from Bratislava. It lies in the Liptov region, in Liptov Bas ...

Liptovský Hrádok Liptovský Hrádok (; german: Neuhäusel in der Liptau; hu, Liptóújvár) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the region of Liptov. History First mentioned in 1341, Liptovský Hrádok was named after the nearby castle. The castle, also known as ...

Svit Svit ( hu, Szvit) ( pl, Świt) is a small town in Poprad District in the Prešov Region in northern Slovakia. It lies west of the city of Poprad, at the foothills of the High Tatras. History Svit is one of the youngest Slovak towns. It was estab ...

Poprad Poprad (; hu, Poprád; german: Deutschendorf) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the Spiš region and the ten ...

Kežmarok Kežmarok (german: Kesmark or ; hu, Késmárk, yi, קעזמאַרק, Kezmark, pl, Kieżmark) is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia (population 16,000), on the Poprad River. Prior to World War I, it was in Szepes county in the Kin ...

Spišská Belá Spišská Belá (german: Zipser Bela; hu, Szepesbéla; pl, Biała Spiska) is a town in the Kežmarok District in the Prešov Region in Spiš in northern Slovakia. Prior to World War I, it was in Szepes county in the Kingdom of Hungary. Histor ...

and

Podolínec Podolínec ( pl, Podoliniec, german: Pudlein, hu, Podolin) is a town in the Stará Ľubovňa District of the Prešov Region in northern Slovakia. Etymology The etymology is straightforward, the name means in Slovak "place between the hills". ...

Location and characteristics

The Podtatranská kotlina is oriented on an east-west axis and is around long and around wide in the north-south direction. It borders: *

Tatras The Tatra Mountains (), Tatras, or Tatra (''Tatry'' either in Slovak () or in Polish () - ''plurale tantum''), are a series of mountains within the Western Carpathians that form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They are the highe ...

in the north * Spišská Magura in the north-east *

Levoča Hills Levoča (; hu, Lőcse; rue, Левоча) is a town in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,700. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Gothic church with the highest wooden altar in the wor ...

in the east *

Kozie chrbty The Kozie chrbty or Kecske-hát (In Slovak, literally "goat ridges") are a mountainous area in Slovakia, part of the Fatra-Tatra Area of the Inner Western Carpathians, where uranium ore may be found. The place was previously known as Vikartovsk ...

in the south-east *

Low Tatras The Low Tatras or Low Tatra ( sk, Nízke Tatry; hu, Alacsony-Tátra) is a mountain range of the Inner Western Carpathians in central Slovakia. It is located south of the Tatras proper, from which it is separated by the valleys of the Váh ...

in the south *

Greater Fatra Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality * ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record * "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014 *Greater Bank, an Australian ...

in the south-west *

Choč Mountains The Choč Mountains (in Slovak, ''Chočské vrchy'') are a range of mountains in north-central Slovakia, a portion of the Fatra-Tatra Area of the Inner Western Carpathians. The range is 24 kilometers long and on average only 4 kilometers wide. Hi ...

in the north-west The basin is divided into three sub-divisions: ''Liptovská kotlina'' (

Liptov Liptov () is a historical and geographical region in central Slovakia with around 140,000 inhabitants. The area is also known by the German name ''Liptau'', the Hungarian ''Liptó'', the Latin name ''Liptovium'' and the Polish ''Liptów''. Etymo ...

Basin), ''Popradská kotlina'' (

Basin) and ''Tatranské predhorie'', also called ''podhorie'' (Tatra Piedmont). The border between the former named basins is also the drainage divide; the

Váh The Váh (; german: Waag, ; hu, Vág; pl, WagWag
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów ...

River drains western part of the area and flows into

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

, which flows into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

, and the Poprad River drains the eastern part and flows through

Dunajec The Dunajec (); Goral dialects: ''Dónajec'') is a river running through northeastern Slovakia and southern Poland. It is also regarded as the main river of the Goral Lands. It is a right tributary of the Vistula River. It begins in Nowy Targ at t ...

into

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

, which flows into the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. The average altitude of the basin is from 700 to 800 m

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

; the lowest point is near

Ružomberok Ružomberok (; german: Rosenberg; hu, Rózsahegy; pl, Rużomberk) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of around 27,000 inhabitants (45,000 with nearby villages). Etymology The name of the initia ...

at 475 m and the highest near Štrba at around 900 m. Originally a

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed land, the basin has been transferred for agricultural use, with more varied relief being turned into

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

s and

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

References

*''Part or whole of the information is based on the corresponding article on the German Wikipedia'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Podtatranska kotlina Landforms of Slovakia Drainage basins of Europe

Location and characteristics

See also

References