The Zillertal is the broadest and most famous valley in Tyrol. With a total area of 1,098 km² - which equates to one ninth of Northern Tyrol - it lies in the very heart of Tyrol. Only 40 km east of Innsbruck, it extends out from close to Jenbach in the Inntal for 32 km in a virtually straight line due south.
In contrast to other side valleys of Tyrol, the Zillertal does not span a lower valley tier, climbing only slightly between Strass (523 m) and Mayrhofen (633 m), where it then subdivides into the Tuxer Tal, the Zemmgrund, Stillupgrund and Zillergrund. (The smaller feeder valleys are referred to here as "Gründe"). Branching off from the northern valley are the unpopulated Märzengrund and Finsinggrund, as does the Gerlostal near Zell am Ziller.
At Strass, the first town in the Zillertal, the Ziller - a feeder river from a glacial stream in the Zillertal Alps on the border to South Tyrol and Salzburg - empties as a tributary into the Inn, which, at this point at least, flows at a very sedate pace. Until the 16th century, this was the point where Bavarian, Tyrolean and Salzburg sovereignty all came face to face.
This border remains visible to this day, with the Ziller separating the diocese of Innsbruck - formerly Brixen - and Salzburg, a fact reflected in the colours of the church steeples: on the left of the Ziller, the steeples are a radiant red, while to the right, in contrast, they are green, a symbol of their membership in the Salzburg archdiocese.
Just like the people of the Zillertal, their language is also full of life and richly facetted. The dialect is quite different from that of the Lower Inn Valley, representing a conglomeration of dialects from the Inntal, South Tyrol, Bavaria and Salzburg. Many ancient sayings, rhymes and songs remain alive and well here in the Zillertal.