The Slanské Hills (in Slovak, ''Slanské vrchy'') is a range of mountains in eastern

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 ...

, one segment of the Mátra-Slanec Area of 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 ...

Overview

The area is named after the nearest town in the southern portion,

Slanec Slanec (german: Salzburg; hu, Nagyszalánc; la, Castrum Salis) is a village and municipality in Košice-okolie District in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1230 (''Cast ...

. The range is approximately long, side, and extends southeast of the city of

Prešov Prešov (, hu, Eperjes, Rusyn language, Rusyn and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Пряшів) is a city in Eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj) and Šariš, as well as the historic Sáros Cou ...

, between the and the

Eastern Slovak Lowland The East(ern) Slovak Lowland ( Slovak: ''Východoslovenská nížina'') is the name of a part of the Great Hungarian Plain (Slovak: ''Veľká dunajská kotlina'') situated in Slovakia. In terms of geomorphology, it forms one unit together with t ...

. The mountains average high, with the highest elevation at , (where 700 healthy, mature

elms Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...

were discovered in 1998). The mountains are forested, with several mineral springs, and resources such as gold, silver, and

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...

. Passes through the mountains include the Herľany Pass and Dargov Pass (''Dargovský priesmyk''), site of a significant

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

battle.

Geology and formation

The Slanské Hills are a chain of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

formed simultaneously with marine deposition during the Neogene geological age (20-11 MYA). Volcanoes in the chain include Makovica and Strechový Vrch. Strechový Vrch was one of the most volcanically active peaks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slanske Hills Mountain ranges of Slovakia Mountain ranges of the Western Carpathians