Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical and cultural region of central Romania in Central Europe, bounded by the Carpathian Mountains to the east and south and the Apuseni Mountains to the west, with the Transylvanian Plateau, at 300 to 500 meters in elevation, forming its core and drained by the Mures, Somes, Cris, and Olt rivers. The region is known for its Carpathian scenery and its rich, multicultural history, and holds the second largest city in Romania, Cluj-Napoca, alongside well preserved medieval towns including Brasov, Sibiu, and Sighisoara, several of them designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Today Transylvania comprises sixteen counties covering about 100,290 square kilometers and a population of roughly 6.5 million, a majority of them Romanian alongside significant Hungarian and Roma communities.