Within Poland, neither of them is forbidding enough to prevent substantial habitation; the Carpathians are especially densely populated.
The Carpathians in Poland, formed as a discrete topographical unit in the relatively recent Tertiary Era, are the highest mountains in the country.
They are the northernmost edge of a much larger range that extends into the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, and Romania.
The Świętokrzyskie Mountains, one of the oldest mountain ranges in Europe, are located in central Poland, in the vicinity of the city of Kielce.
Together with the Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska the mountains form a region called the Lesser Poland Upland (Wyżyna Małopolska).