Scutari Mountain Biking Trails

Shkodër County is a county in northwestern Albania, with the capital in Shkodër. The county spans 3,562 square kilometres (1,375 sq mi) and had a total population of 215,483 people as of 2016. The county borders on the counties of Lezhë, Kukës and the country of Montenegro. The county consists of five municipalities, including Fushë-Arrëz, Malësi e Madhe, Pukë, Shkodër and Vau i Dejës.

During the Bronze Age, the area was inhabited by various Illyrian tribes such as the Ardiaeis and Labeataes. Illyria was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. Falling under Venetian and Ottoman dominion in the late Middle Ages, the modern nation state of Albania emerged in 1912 following its independence.

The climate of the county is profoundly affected by the Adriatic Sea in the west and the Albanian Alps in the north. It experiences mostly mediterranean climate, while the north enjoys continental climate. The summers are predominantly hot and dry, the winters relatively mild, and falls and springs mainly unstable, both in terms of precipitation and temperatures.Heavy rainfall is extremely common in the county and has caused many floodings of the rivers and lakes.

The county features notable diversity with the landscape ranging from the snow-capped Albanian Alps in the north to the warm regions of Shkodra Lake and Adriatic Sea in the south and southwest. Being a geological continuation of the Dinaric Alps, the Albanian Alps are the highest section and one of the most rugged mountains in Europe. While the Alps occupy the northern part of the territory, the population is concentrated mostly on the Mbishkodra plain, where the largest city is to be found, the cultural and economic centre of Shkodër. The mountainous areas of the county is sparsely populated, where the population density falls. The largest lake of Southern and Southeastern Europe, the Lake Shkodër sprawls in the east and is shared with Montenegro.

With more than 215,000 inhabitants in 2016, the county is the sixth most populous county in Albania, the second most populous county in the Northern Region. The county is ethnically a homogeneous county and mostly inhabited by Gheg Albanians. In addition, Egyptians, Montenegrins and Greeks also are present in the ethnic composition of the local population. The country has no official religion and freedom of religion is a right defined by the Constitution of Albania, and the most widely professed religion in the county is Islam and Christianity.