Hallstätter See or Lake Hallstatt is a lake in

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 ...

, Austria. It is named after

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 ...

, 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 industrial pipeline, used to transport

brine Brine (or briny water) is a high-concentration solution of salt (typically sodium chloride or calcium chloride) in water. In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawat ...

to Bad Ischl (since 1596) and further to Ebensee. Since about 1970/1980 the only ship-mail-line of AustriaSee: Blue line and legend in "Postverkehrskarte Österreich" from about 1985 crossed the lake from the railway on the east shore to the town in the west. In winters the road on the west shore tended to be blocked by high snow or the risk of avalanches. When the ice on the lake was thick enough, a sled pulled by men or horses, later a motorized track vehicle was used to transport mail and persons. Later a tunneled road was built through Hallstatt and the mail switched to transport by bus and truck. Its surface is approximately and its maximum depth is 125 metres. It is a popular destination for tourists, especially scuba divers. The fixed exit weir, a 500-year old protected monument, has no bypass and therefore caused the flooding of several houses in Hallstatt on 18 June 2013.

References

Lakes of Upper Austria Hallstatt {{UpperAustria-geo-stub

See also

References