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. 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. Emil von Sydow designed maps with coloured hachures: green for lowlands and brown for highlands.