Divisions of the Carpathians


Divisions of the Carpathians are 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 System that stretches from the western Europe all the way to southern Asia, and are further divided into "provinces" and "subprovinces". The last level of the division, i.e. the actual mountain ranges and basins, is usually classified as "units". The main divisions are shown in the map on the right.
To generalize, there are three major provinces : Western Carpathians, Eastern Carpathians, and Southern Carpathians.

Naming Conventions

The division is largely undisputed at the lowest level, but various divisions are given for the higher levels, especially for the penultimate level. A geomorphological division has been used as much as the data was available; other new physiogeographic divisions were used in other cases. Where the classification of a higher level "title" is known/sure, it is added at the end of the name in brackets, e.g. "".
;Taxonomy
The names are also given in the language of the corresponding country and marked by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes:
The most confusing and diverse is the classification of the Beskids, including the Western Beskids, the Central Beskids and the Eastern Beskids. Their geologic features are fairly distinct, but multiple traditions, languages and nationalities have developed overlapping variants for the divisions and names of these ranges.
In Romania, it is usual to divide the Eastern Carpathians in Romanian territory into three formal groups, instead in Outer and Inner sections of Eastern Carpathians. The Romanian approach is shown by adding the following abbreviations to the names of units within Romania:
Similar standard is traditionally applied within broader use of the term "Wooded Carpathians", that encompasses all mountain ranges within central section of Outer Eastern Carpathians, including Eastern Beskids with Polonynian Mountains, and also all mountains within northern section of Inner Eastern Carpathians, including Vihorlat-Gutin Area and Maramureș-Rodna Area.
The Transylvanian Plateau is encircled by, and geologically a part of, the Carpathians. But it is not a mountainous region and its inclusion is disputed in some sources. Its features are included below.
The Serbian Carpathians are sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians, sometimes not considered part of the Carpathians at all. They're included below.
The Outer Carpathian Depressions lay outside the broad arc of the entire formation and are usually listed as part of the individual divisions of the Carpathian Mountains, i.e. of Western Carpathians, Eastern Carpathians etc. With the difficulty of finding their exact subdivisions, they are given only as a list of the final units from the west to the east and south, in a separate listing at the end.

[Western Carpathians] (province)

Outer Western Carpathians (subprovince)

[South-Moravian Carpathians] (CZ) / [Austrian - South-Moravian Carpathians] (AT) (area)

Western section of the Western Beskids
Northern section of the Western Beskids
Eastern section of the Western Beskids
Central section of the Western Beskids
, marked in red and labeled with G

[Slovak Ore Mountains] (SK) (area)

Slovenské rudohorie
Clarification: In Ukraine sometimes is denoted as "Eastern Carpathians" only the part basically on their territory, while in Romania sometimes use to call "Eastern Carpathians" only the other part, which lies on their territory. In some Polish classifications, Central Beskids and Central Beskidian Piedmont belongs to Western Carpathians province and Outer Western Carpathians subprovince.

Outer Eastern Carpathians (subprovince)

[Central Beskidian Piedmont] (PL)***

Wooded Beskids :
Polonynian Beskids :

[Vihorlat-Gutin Area]

[Bucegi Mountains] Group

[Apuseni Mountains] (''Munții Apuseni'')

Criș Mountains :
Seș-Meseș Mountains :
Bihor Massif :
  • Bihor Mountains
  • Great Mountain
  • Gilău Mountains
Mureș Mountains :
''Transylvanian Plateau :
The Outer Subcarpathian regions are divided into Western, Northern etc. and are usually treated as part of the individual parts of the Carpathian Mountains, i.e. of Western Carpathians, Eastern Carpathians etc.. Since, however, it was impossible to find their exact subdivision, they are given only as a list of the final units from the west to the east and south here: