The East Styrian Hill Country or East Styrian Hills ( or ''Oststeirisches Riedelland''), is a rolling, hill country region, known as ''

Hügelland ''Hügelland'' () is a type of landscape consisting of low rolling hills (geology), rolling hills whose topography or surface structure lies between that of a lowland region (plains or river terraces) and that of a more rugged hill range or low mo ...

'', in the southeast of the Austrian state of

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 ...

Geography

The East Styrian Hill Country is part of the ''

Alpine Foreland The Alpine Foreland, less commonly called the Bavarian Foreland,Dickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, pp. 585-586. . Bavarian Plateau or Bavarian Alpine Foreland (), refers to a tria ...

in the East and Southeast'' and extend over large parts of East Styria and Southeast Styria. They are characterised by elongated hill ridges or

interfluve An interfluve is a narrow, elongated and plateau-like or ridge-like landform between two valleys.Leser, Hartmut, ed. (2005). ''Wörterbuch Allgemeine Geographie'', 13th ed., dtv, Munich, p. 766, . More generally, an interfluve is defined as an are ...

s (''Riedel''). They are bounded in the west and south by the River Mur and in the north by the

Prealps East of the Mur The Prealps East of the Mur () are the easternmost mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps. They comprise the eastern foothills of the Alpine crest beyond the Mur river and the adjacent southeastern Alpine Foreland. Boundary and neighbourin ...

, especially the eastern Graz Uplands, the prominent Kulm massif and the Joglland with its peak, the Masenberg. To the east it is bounded by the

Lafnitz river The Lafnitz () is a river in southeastern Austria and (briefly) western Hungary. The Lafnitz is long, and has a basin area of . It rises near the border of Styria and Lower Austria, and flows in a generally southeastern direction through the town ...

. The East Styrian Hills cover an area of about 50 x 80 km, but continue as a landscape type

geologically Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

and morphologically: * in the west as the smaller West Styrian Hills (''Weststeirisches Hügelland''), its boundary being formed by the Mur and both landscapes being called the '' Styrian Hills'' * and in the east in the narrow South Burgenland and towards West Hungary, where it is bounded in the north by the South Burgenland Hills (''Südburgenländische Schwelle'') and in the east by the

Pannonian Basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorpholog ...

*in a southerly direction (

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

) the hills continue - rather differently divided - as the

Slovene Hills The Slovene Hills or the Slovenian Hills (, or ) is the largest hilly region of Slovenia, a smaller part is located in the Austrian province of Styria. It is situated in the northeast of the country and has an area of . It comprises the ''Western ...

(, ) in

Lower Styria Styria (, ), also known as Slovenian Styria (; ) or Lower Styria (; ) to differentiate it from Austrian Styria, is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of St ...

(''Spodnja Štajerska'') and '' Goričko'' in the

Prekmurje Prekmurje (; Prekmurje Slovene: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; ) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarians in Slovenia, Hungarian minority, lying betwee ...

(Upper Mur region) for another 30 km or so. Most of the valleys in the entire region run southwards to southeastwards, which gives the

orography Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology,'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader disci ...

its typical divisions. The region is drained by the Mur as well as the waters of the Raab and , and the valley of the

Lafnitz Lafnitz () is a municipality in the district of Hartberg-Fürstenfeld in Styria, 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 ...

forms the boundary.

Literature

* Peter Krenn: ''Die Oststeiermark. Ihre Kunstwerke, Historischen Lebens- und Siedlungsformen.'' Erweiterte Neuauflage, Reihe Styria regional, Verlag Styria, Graz, 1997, .

External links

Hill country east of Graz

Website of East Styria

{{Authority control Geography of Styria Prealps East of the Mur