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

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, 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 west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, 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 int ...

, 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 S ...

. Towns and cities include Ružomberok,

Liptovský Mikuláš Liptovský Mikuláš (; until 1952 ''Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš'', ; ) is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River, about from Bratislava. It lies in the Liptov region, in Podtatranská kotlina, Liptov Basin near the Low Tatra and Tat ...

Liptovský Hrádok Liptovský Hrádok (; ; ) 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 Liptovský Hrádok, was built originally for use ...

, Svit,

Poprad Poprad (; ; ) is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatras, High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. The largest town of the Spiš region and the largest of all towns in the vic ...

, Kežmarok, Spišská Belá and

Podolínec Podolínec (, , , ) is a town in the Stará Ľubovňa District of the Prešov Region in northern Slovakia, in the historic region of Spiš. Etymology The etymology is straightforward, the name means in Slovak language, Slovak "place between the h ...

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

Kozie chrbty The Kozie chrbty (In Slovak language, 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 Vikartovs ...

in the south-east * Low Tatras 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 Australia ...

in the south-west * Choč Mountains 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''. Etym ...

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 (; , ; ; Wag
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (''in Geograph ...

River drains western part of the area and flows into

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, which flows into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea 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 bound ...

, 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 ...

into

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

, which flows into the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

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

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

; the lowest point is near

Ružomberok Ružomberok (; ; ; ) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of approximately 27,000. Etymology The name of the initial settlement located on today's Makovický street was ''Revúca'' ( Slovak "roaring ...

at 475 m and the highest near

Štrba Štrba (, ) is a village in the Poprad District, Prešov Region, northern Slovakia. It is situated in the Sub-Tatra Basin, which separates the High Tatras and Low Tatras at the European continental divide between the Baltic and the Black Sea ...

at around 900 m. Originally a

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

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 they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

s and

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

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