Charlotte, Raleigh, and the Piedmont

The gently rolling hills of the Piedmont make up the central third of North Carolina. This region, wedged between the mountains and the coastal plain, gradually rises from 300 to 1,500 feet above sea level. Long ridges, meandering rivers, and large human-made lakes characterize the area, the most heavily developed region of the state. The Piedmont includes North Carolina's three major metropolitan centers—Charlotte, the Triad, and the Triangle. For the sake of verbal convenience, North Carolinians group six of the area's urban centers into two threesomes: the Triad and the Triangle. The Triad is short for Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point; the Triangle refers to the shape traced by Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, in the center of which sits Research Triangle Park—a renowned complex of international companies and public and private research facilities. These urban centers have brought world-class museums, shopping, sophisticated restaurants, and professional sporting venues to the region. And one of the beauties of the Piedmont's cities—including Charlotte, which has the state's most dramatic skyline—is that they're characterized by canopies of hardwoods and pines. More »