Site: The mountains Pohorje lies in the north-western part of Slovenia. It takes the area of about 1000 km2, covered mainly with the conifers, between river Drava in the north and the Vitanjska valley, Dravinja hills and the Dravsko-Ptujska plain in the south. We can point out the utmost points with the towns: Dravograd in the west, Maribor in the east and Slovenske Konjice in the south.Pohorje geographicaly belongs to the Central Alps, and is connected with them by Svinja mountain and Golica. As a passing region between Alps, Dinarske mountains and Pannonia, it has characteristics of all three areas. About 50 km long ridge does not have a significant summits, the rounded shoulder sometimes exceeds over 1500 m (Crni vrh, 1543 m; Velika kopa, 1542 m; Rogla, 1517 m).

Structure: Among Slovenian mountains, Pohorje is the only mountain containing silicat and so it is something special. The rim is made of paleozoic metamorph silicats and the centre of the magma rocks, specialy tonalit and dacit. By the village Cezlak above Oplotnica there is the only finding place of cegrave;izlakit in the world. Already the Romans knew and were using the Pohorje marble. The tombstones are in the church of St. Martin in Smartno na Pohorju. The limestone layers Jesenkov vrh and Zapecnikov vrh are known as the lonely Karst and is a living place for the kalcidofil plants and animals. Because of the waterproof ground, waters flew together making the largest net of waters in Slovenia. Springs and brooks are running into bigger channels towards the valley. Lobnica, Bistrica, Dravinja and Mislinja are among them.

Climate: Pohorje has a unique climate. It is situated on the passage of alpine and prealpine world, where the different climates are mixing. On colder sites with high sea-level is a colder climate with a high moisture degree and at a lower sea-level there is a continental climate, which is spreading through the east directed valleys deep into the prealpine world. On Pohorje there is a temperate climate without a great changes of temperatures. Towards the middle of the mountains the sea-level is increasing and at the same time the average quantity of precipitations. The most of them fall in the winter and spring. Because of the severe climate and other ecologycal factors, the vegetation time is much shorter in the high areas than on the plain. The higher parts of Pohorje are covered with snow 60 days earlier than the lower parts and the snow usually lasts until May whereas in the lower parts it melts very soon. In the hights over 1100 m the snow can last 120-150 days a year. The surface of the Pohorje mountains is advantageous for the winter tourism, because it is possible to ski despite the thin layer of snow.

We got matrial from Hancman Branko ©RAIN