The Eastern Alps include the eastern parts of Switzerland (mainly Graubünden), all of Liechtenstein, and most of Austria from Vorarlberg to the east, as well as parts of extreme Southern Germany (Upper Bavaria), northwestern Italy (Lombardy), northeastern Italy (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia) and a good portion of northern Slovenia (Upper Carniola and Lower Styria).

In the south the range is bound by the Italian Padan Plain; in the north the valley of the Danube River separates it from the Bohemian Massif.

The region around the Großglockner and the adjacent Pasterze Glacier has been a special protection area within the High Tauern National Park since 1986.

Mount Sulzfluh is well frequented by climbers and is situated in the Rätikon range of the Alps, on the border between Austria and Switzerland.

[9][10] The Falknishorn, at 2452 meters above sea level, is the 5th highest mountain in Liechtenstein and represents the southernmost point of the country.

[9][10] In addition to the peaks of the Alpine chain,[10] which belong to the Limestone Alps, two inselbergs, Fläscherberg (1135 meters above sea level.)

in the south and Eschnerberg (698 m) in the north, rise from the Rhine Valley and belong to the Helvetic cover or flysch zone of the Alps.

[11][10] A sandstone[12][13] mountain belt called the Flyschzone[12] runs along the Northern Margin of the Limestone Alps[12] and used to be part the submereded sea bed of the Tethys Ocean.

[14] The High Tauern mountain range in which Mt Grossglockner, 3,797 m (12,457.35 ft) lies, separates Carentania from the state of Salzburg in the northwest.

[18] It risesin the Hohe Tauern national park of the Central Eastern Alps in Austria with its source being 1,898 m (6,227 ft) above sea level.

[19][20] The mountains of the canton include part of a thrust fault that was declared a geologic UNESCO World Heritage Site, under the name Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, in 2008.

The Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) has a slightly different classification of the ranges, based on the political borders in the canton of Graubünden.

In Italy the 1926 Partizione delle Alpi concept is quite common, recently superseded by the SOIUSA attempt to combine the different approaches.

The first signs of humans living in the area of present-day Liechtenstein can be dated back to the Middle Paleolithic era.

A Roman road crossed Liechtenstein from south to north, traversing the Alps by the Splügen Pass and following the right bank of the Rhine at the edge of the floodplain, for long uninhabited because of periodic flooding.

[26] By 259, Alamanni tribes had overrun the Limes and caused widespread devastation of Roman cities and settlements in the Crisis of the Third Century.

Despite a legend assigning its foundation to a legendary British king, St Lucius, the first known bishop is one Asinio[29] in AD 451.

By the 590s AD, today's East Tyrol and Carinthia had come to be referred to in historical sources as Provincia Sclaborum (the Country of Slavs).

The city of Chur suffered several invasions: by the Magyars in 925–926, when the cathedral was destroyed, and by the Saracens (940 and 954), but afterwards it flourished thanks to its location, where the roads from several major Alpine transit routes come together and continue down the Rhine River.

Emperor Otto I appointed his vassal Hartpert as bishop of Chur in 958 and awarded the bishopric numerous privileges.

It was built there some time earlier than its first recorded account, possibly even around Roman Veldidena in the 4th century, due to the important crossing point over the Inn River.

[citation needed] The Counts of Andechs first acquired the town in 1180 and then the town passed into the hands of the Counts of Tyrol in 1248[41] From upper Valais, the Walser began to spread south, west and east between the 12th and 13th centuries, in the so-called Walser migrations (Walserwanderungen).

Nearly 1,500 years later the people of Triesenberg in Liechtenstein still speak a dialect of German that was influence of Walser migrants from the early in the 14th century.

In 1367 the foundation of the Three Leagues in the area was a first step towards Chur's autonomy: a burgmeister (mayor) is first mentioned in 1413, and the bishop's residence was attacked by the inhabitants.

As the power of the bishops, now increasingly under the influence of the nearby Habsburg County of Tyrol, decreased, in 1464 the citizens wrote a constitution which was adopted as the rule for the peoples of the local guilds and political positions.

(German: Grafschaft Vaduz) was a historic state of the Holy Roman Empire[43] In 1367 the League of God's House (Cadi, Gottes Haus, Ca' di Dio) was founded to resist the rising power of the Bishop of Chur.

Following World War I and the subsequent dissolution of Austria-Hungary, it was divided into two modern administrative parts through the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

[19][20] In 2005, the Carinthia Statistical Region was established, which covers a larger area of about 1,041 km2 (402 sq mi), at the exspence of Styria.

The largest employer and most iconic corporate presence is Hilti, a manufacturer of direct fastening systems and other high-end power tools.

[47] The Austrian states of Tirol and Vorarlberg are also connected by a pass road called the Silvretta Hochalpenstraße (at a height of 2032m).