Wattental

The Wattental is a southern

side valley Side valleys and tributary valleys are valleys whose brooks or rivers flow into greater ones. Upstream, the valleys can be classified in an increasing order which is equivalent to the usual orographic order: the tributaries are ordered from th ...

of the

Inn valley The Inn ( la, Aenus; rm, En) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The river is long. It is a right tributary of the Danube and it is the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is ...

. The valley, through which the Wattenbach stream flows, is incised deeply into the

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

phyllite Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliated metamorphic rock created from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. It is primarily compo ...

rock of the

Tux Prealps The Tux Alps (german: Tuxer Alpen) or Tux Prealps (''Tuxer Voralpen'') are a sub-group of the Austrian Central Alps, which in turn form part of the Eastern Alps within Central Europe. They are located entirely within the Austrian federal state o ...

. The two

dispersed settlement A dispersed settlement, also known as a scattered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement patterns used by landscape historians to classify rural settlements found in England and other parts of the world. Typically, there are a numb ...

s of Wattenberg and Vögelsberg (in the municipality of

Wattens Wattens is a market town of the Innsbruck-Land District in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is chiefly known as home of the Swarovski crystal glass company. Geography Wattens is located in the Lower Inn Valley of North Tyrol, about east of Innsbr ...

) sprawl across the outer part of the valley. At the head of the valley is the

Wattentaler Lizum {{Coord, 47, 10, 21, N, 11, 38, 16, E, region:AT-7_type:landmark, display=title The Wattentaler Lizum (locally also Wattener Lizum) is the name of the head of the Wattental valley which branches off the lower Inn valley near Wattens. ''Lizum'' mean ...

and its military training area of Lizum Walchen which is run by the

Austrian Armed Forces The Austrian Armed Forces (german: Bundesheer, lit=Federal Army) are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria. The military consists of 22,050 active-duty personnel and 125,600 reservists. The military budget is 0.74% of nati ...

. The Wattentaler Lizum lies entirely on the territory of Wattenberg. The Wattental produces a high level of water power thanks to its large catchment area which is why internationally successful firms such as

Swarovski Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Austria, and has existed as a family-owned business since its founding in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski. The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal ...

, and Wattenspapier have been established in the village of

by the River Inn. The Wattental was and is therefore the reason behind the economic boom of the market village of Wattens which has made it one of the wealthiest municipalities in Austria. The valley is a popular recreation area. The summits of the Rotwandspitze, Hirzer and Hahneburger have outstanding views and can be climbed from bases in the valley. In the upper part of the valley ( Mölsberg) access is limited by the military training area. On the first Sunday after the

Assumption Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to: Places * Assumption, Alberta, Canada * Assumption, Illinois, United States ** Assumption Tow ...

a service, the Mölsberg Mass (''Mölsbergmesse'') takes place at the summit cross of the Mölsberg in the middle of the

, which is a memorial service to those from the valley who fell in the two world wars. On that day the training area is opened to private vehicles; normally it is out-of-bounds. At the head of the valley is a small lake, the

Mölssee Lake Moels (german: Mölssee) is a lake of Tyrol, Austria. It can be found at the upper part of the Wattental valley at a height of 2,240 metres. With an area of , it is one larger lakes in the area. The lake can be reached by following the road ...

. {{Coord, 47, 13, 48, N, 11, 37, 07, E, region:AT-7_type:landmark_dim:16500, display=title Valleys of Tyrol (state) Innsbruck-Land District