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Yugoslavia Topography
Rugged mountains dominate the 255,892 square kilometers of
Yugoslavia. Mountains separate the fertile inland plain from a
narrow, rocky Adriatic coastline. Yugoslavia's three main
mountainous regions occupy about 60 percent of its territory. The
Julian Alps of Slovenia, an extension of the Italian and Austrian
alps, include Yugoslavia's highest peaks. The Dinaric Alps rise
dramatically along the entire 640-kilometer Adriatic coast.
Finally, spurs extend southward from the Carpathian and Balkan
mountains through Serbia from the Danube River's Iron Gate near
the Romanian-Bulgarian border, intersecting with the Dinaric Alps
in Macedonia
(see Drainage Systems
, this ch.).
The composition of Yugoslavia's mountains varies. The Dinaric
Alps, like the offshore Adriatic islands, are chiefly cracked
limestone strata that form long valleys and contain topographical
oddities such as magnificent caves, disappearing rivers, and a
freshwater lake (on the north Adriatic island of Cres) deeper
than the Adriatic seabed. In some areas east of the coast,
erosion of the limestone has exposed the crystalline rock
outlayers of the Rhodope massif, which is the primeval core of
the Balkan Peninsula. From Bosnia southeastward, areas of
crystalline rock are interspersed with alluvial sedimentary rock.
Serbia's mountains contain a variety of rock types, including
volcanic rock and exposed crystalline formations. Geological
fault lines in southern Yugoslavia have caused occasional
earthquakes; the most serious in recent times killed over 1,000
people at Skopje in 1963.
North and west of Belgrade are the Pannonian Plains, which
include all of the Serbian province of Vojvodina. These plains
wwer the floor of a huge inland sea during the Tertiary Period
(65 millon to 2.5 million years ago). Here eons of sedimentary
and windblown deposits have created layers of fertile soil that
are over 160 meters deep in some places.
Yugoslavia possesses about 2100 kilometers of convoluted
Adriatic coastline, not including its many islands. From the
coast, access inland is easiest through four passages. The
Postojna Gate, used for millennia by merchants and armies
crossing between the Adriatic and Central Europe, is Yugoslavia's
northernmost passage through the coastal mountains. Farther
south, the Neretva River is a centuries-old trading link between
the Adriatic and Bosnia. Below the Neretva, the Gulf of Kotor is
a spectacular fjord long considered a strategic port. Finally,
the port of Bar connects with the interior of Montenegro and
Serbia by means of the Belgrade-Bar Railway, giving Serbia access
to the Adriatic.
Data as of December 1990
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