Cumberland Plateau

The mountains of eastern Kentucky form part of the Cumberland Plateau, which extends from Virginia to Alabama, and is a section of the Appalachian Mountains. The Cumberland Plateau is crossed by many streams and rivers, which divide the network of thickly forested ridges.

Tableland in the southeastern USA, the most southwesterly section of the Appalachian Mountains. It extends northeast–southwest for a distance of around 725 km/450 mi, in a belt up to 80 km/50 mi wide. Its highest point is Black Mountain in Kentucky (1,263 m/4,145 ft).

The Cumberland Plateau runs from southern West Virginia (where it is a continuation of the Allegheny Plateau) along the border between Kentucky and Virginia, across eastern Tennessee on the west bank of the Tennessee River, and into Alabama, north of Birmingham. The section to which the name ‘Cumberland Mountains’ is most often applied stretches for some 240 km/150 mi along the Kentucky–Virginia border and into northern Tennessee, and includes the highest ridges in the region, such as Black Mountain and Pine Mountain. To the southwest, the plateau includes Walden Ridge, the Crab Orchard Mountains, Lookout Mountain, and Sand Mountain. The Cumberland Gap is in the southwest of Virginia. Streams have carved deep valleys across the plateau at many points, making transportation difficult and contributing to the poverty and isolation for which this area is notorious. Coalmining is main economic activity, along with some forestry.