Mirror lakes, green hills, white glaciers - Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape 806
What and Why
Salzkammergut is simply one of the beautiful regions in the world. Its beautiful glaciers, stunning mountain landscapes and a mirror-like lake present a picturesque canvas only envisage-able in paintings and movies. This makes it one of the most visited, and perhaps over-visited resort areas in Europe.
This is not the only reason why it is a UNESCO WHS. The area, as the name suggests, is famous for its salt deposits. Salt (German: Salz) being such an important commodity in history, the region developed one of the earliest and most important cultures in Europe: the Hallstatt culture during the 12th century BCE. This salt industry perpetuated and continued only with short hiatus here and there until almost the modern days, when the Habsburg took over and resided in the region, and hence decreed the name Salzkammergut to the area. I shall discuss more extensively about the Hallstatt culture in my blog on Halstatt.
Toponymy
The city Obertraun refers to the town just at the base of the resort. Traun is the river name flowing at the region which means rough in German. Obertraun means above the river Traun. The main mountain name Dachstein, or technically Hoher Dachstein simply translates to the top of a rock in German.
The name of the region Salzkammergut translates to 'salt chamber property'. Clearly salt was and still is an important commodity and the region is famous of its salt mines. Kammergut is a German word for territories held by the monarchy of the Holy Roman Empire (Latin: Sacrum Imperium Romanum), this referred specifically to territories belonging to the Habsburg.
See
The resort area is roughly divided into two areas: the Dachstein mountains and the famed Hallstatt village. We shall focus in the Dachstein mountains in this blog.
From Obertraun, one will take the cable car to the Mittelstation with an absolutely stunning view of the lake to reach what is referred to the lower Dachstein (Underirdisch) to visit see a number of caves.
Mammut Cave (Mammut Höhle)
This is where one starts and will feel cheated. On the resort map you can clearly see a mammoth icon, but in reality the Mammut Cave (Mammut Höhle) is named simply because of its size. The is one of Europe's largest karst caves, and has more than 70 km of explored passageways within in. The tour, which explores the larger and the easier portion is just 1 km.
The cave brings out the inner child of everyone because it is well-lit and well-managed and hence creates all sorts of shadows. We were asked to take a photo of this area as it resembles a bear or a beaver, whatever your imagination says. This cave allows for the more experienced to do a bit of more venturous trekking, exploration and abseiling.
Giant Ice Cave (Eishöhle)
Advertised as a few minute walk from the cable car station, one actually needs to do a mild 30-minute climb to reach the entrance of the Giant Ice Cave (Eishöhle).
The Giant Ice Cave is constantly supplied with water seeped into the cave through the top of the mountain. The inner part of the caves is ice-cold and as a result the water freezes to become huge stalactites over millions of years.
The guided tour is around an hour around the main area of the colourfully-lit area. One of the main features is the ice chapel and the ice tower, which honestly looks a bit phallic. We could not see the chapel very well though.
The main icon of the cave: the ice tower, which is formed more than 100 years ago.
After exploring the lower Dachstein, one needs to take a very long cable car ride to access the upper Dachstein (Oberirdisch) at the Bergstation, where one will be able to get a stunning panoramic view the resort area.
5 Fingers
The main reason why we spent almost an hour in the cable car, 5 Fingers (no German name) is an overhung-overlook of the Salzkammergut valley with five viewing platforms which looks like a palm. At 2108 m, naturally this is the most crowded place on the top. The left finger has a classical photo-frame for everyone to do an Instagram. By the way the 5 Fingers is illuminated at night and one can see this all the way from Hallstatt! Unfortunately if you stay until night time, you can only walk down the mountain.
World Heritage Spiral (Welterbespirale)
Looks like Noah Ark on the top the mountain, this observation platform provides another view of the valley.
Nearer to the station (another 20 min walk) there is the Dachstein Shark (Dachstein Hai), which is a favourite for children. One can climb up to the jaw area of the shark to get another view of the valley.
The Dachstein shark is not only a child-monument. It actually reminds the tourists that the Dachstein massif was itself covered by sea water millions of years ago and there was even a pre-historic shark at that time - called the ice shark. As a matter of fact, there are still a large number of fossilised crustaceans and deposits up in the mountain!
Dachstein Glacier (Dachstein Gletscher)
There is now a new area at an even higher altitude (2,700 m) known as the Dachstein Glacier (Dachstein Gletscher). We did not find time to visit this new feature as it requires a totally different drive route. In fact it is only accessible through another state called Styria. It offers other recreational features like the skybridge, another glass overlook, suspension bridge across two hills and a panoramic gondola ride!
Getting There and Around
Drive to Obertraun and then one will find the cable car station named Dachsteinbahn at the bottom. The entrance fee together with the cable car is EUR 32€. Spend a full day there. The place is only reachable by bus or car.
Rough location of the area.
UNESCO Inscription
Human activity in the magnificent natural landscape of the Salzkammergut began in prehistoric times, with the salt deposits being exploited as early as the 2nd millennium BC. This resource formed the basis of the area’s prosperity up to the middle of the 20th century, a prosperity that is reflected in the fine architecture of the town of Hallstatt.
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