Hachure map

Hachures (/ˈhæʃʊərz/) are an older mode of representing relief. They show orientation of slope, and by their thickness and overall density they provide a general sense of steepness. Being non-numeric, they are less useful to a scientific survey than contours, but can successfully communicate quite specific shapes of terrain. They are a form of shading, although different from the one used in shaded maps.

Hachure representation of relief was standardized by the Austrian topographer Johann Georg Lehmann in 1799.^[1] Hachures may be combined with other ways of representing relief, such as shades, the result being a shaded hachure map; an example of such a map is the Dufour Map of Switzerland.^[2] Emil von Sydow designed maps with coloured hachures: green for lowlands and brown for highlands.