Vihorlat Mountains (, Vyhorliat, Hungarian: Vihorlát) or colloquially Vihorlat is a volcanic mountain range in eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine. A part of the range is listed as a World Heritage Site.

Etymology

The name is of Slavic origin. Jozef Martinka suggested the origin in Ruthenian vyharj / vyhar (Slovak: výhor) - a burned forest with a grouping suffix -ať. Vygarljať, Vyhorljať - a mountain with many burned places. The Hungarian name Vihorlát derives from Slovak as an intermediate language.

Vihorlat Mountains in Slovakia

The Slovak part is 55 km long, up to 11 km broad and from 400 to 1,076 m high. It belongs to the Vihorlat-Gutin Area group of the Inner Eastern Carpathian Mountains. The middle part of the mountains is protected by the Vihorlat Protected Landscape Area. Vihorlat is bordered by the Eastern Slovak Lowland (Východoslovenská nížina) in the south and the west. The Beskidian Southern Piedmont (Beskydské predhorie) separates Vihorlat from the Bukovské vrchy mountains and Laborecká vrchovina highlands in the north. The highest peak is Vihorlat at 1,076 m AMSL. The largest lake in the mountain range is Morské oko, which is situated at 618 m AMSL.

World Heritage Site

Kyjovský prales, a primeval beech forest in Vihorlat Mountains, was proclaimed by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site on June 28, 2007, because of its comprehensive and undisturbed ecological patterns and processes.

Gallery

Panorama