SALZBURG, formerly a province of Austria, and now a gau of greater Germany, covers an area of 2,762 square miles. It includes from south to north parts of the following Ethological belts of the Alps, the crystalline, the slate and schist, the lime stone High Alps, and the flysc/i zones. The first named extends from the glacier-capped Hohe Tauern and southern slopes of the Niedere Tauern to the line of the Pinzgau eastward to the Mand ling pass. This is a region much dissected by tributaries of the Salzach and characterised by forestry and pastoral pursuits. The most important valley is that of the Gastein leading to a col be tween the Hohe and Niedere Tauern ranges and followed by a railway to Carinthia. North of this belt is a wedge-shaped mass of slates and schist, with softer outlines and lower forested heights, which is in turn replaced by the lake-strewn plateau of Dachstein limestone, split into several detached blocks, e.g., the eastern end of the Kitzbiihl Alps, the Salzburg Alps (Birnhorn, 8,637 ft.), the Reiteralpe and the glacier-capped Schonfeldspitze mass (8,708 ft.).
Part of the Dachstein group also belongs to Salzburg. Drainage is effected mainly by the Salzach which in its upper course follows a west-east marshy valley (Pinzgau) along the foot of the Hohe Tauern, at the junction of crystallines and slates, to Schwarzach St. Veit, where it takes a transverse course through a wider and more fertile valley (Ponzgau), breaking through a narrow pass between the Hagengebirge and the Tennegebirge and reaching the foreland at Salzburg; the upper waters of the Enns and Mur take the drainage of the eastern half of the Niedere Tauern. Salzburg is noted for its numerous beautiful lakes and the many mag nificent falls on its rivers, e.g., the four Krimmler falls, together
2,085 ft. high, the most important falls in the Eastern Alps and the Tauern fall (66o ft.).
The enclosed basins of the higher mountain districts experience very hard winters and settlement in them is thin and confined to the sunny slopes and alluvial fans. About 16% of the total area is unproductive and of the remainder some I I% is given over to crops and io% to meadows. Forestry and pastoral activities, aided by a wealth of Alpine pasture (some 30% of the area) are most important. Mineral resources include : salt at Hallein, copper near Bischofshofen, iron-ore at Werfen, marble (Adnet) and small quantities of gold, silver and arsenic. The absence of coal is compensated by the rich stores of water, from which electrical power is developed at Lend Gastein, Barenwerk, etc., yet industry is only moderately progressive. Catering for visitors to the spas, scenic resorts and centres for winter-sports is the most remunerative industry. Apart from Salzburg (q.v.), the capital, the population of 248,188 is rurally distributed, mainly along the valleys and chief lines of traffic, and no other town reaches I0,000 inhabitants. The people are of German stock and mainly Roman Catholic in religion, with a high standard of educa tion.
See F. Martin, Kunstgeschichte von Salzburg (Vienna, 1924) and E. Spengler, Geologischer Fuhrer durch die Salzburger Alpen and des Salzkammergut (Berlin, 1924) ; E. Kriechbaum, Salzburg and des Oberdonauland (Berlin, 1938).