The Mark an der Drau (German for "March on the (river) Drava") was a historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire and its predecessors during the Middle Ages. It came into being during the second half of the 10th century, covering an area from the eastern border of the Carolingian Carantanian Gaugrafschaft of Jauntal [de] (that is, the Drava valley between the mouth of the Vellach and Schwabegg) to Pettau (modern Ptuj) in the territory of Friedau (Ormož). After 1147 it was attached to the Mark an der Mur forming the March of Styria/Carantania, which later gave rise to the Duchy of Styria. Other designations for the territory include Mark Pettau ('March of Pettau'), Mark hinter dem Drauwald ('March beyond the Drava forest'), Grafschaft hinter dem Drauwald ('County beyond the Drava forest'), Marchia transsilvana/transsylvana, Pitouiensis, and untere Karantaner Mark ('lower Carantanian March').

The territory of the march corresponded to that of the Gau of Zistanesfeld, which straddled the river Drau (Drava), south of where the Mur approaches it.

The Carinthian County of Jaun (also Jaune, Jaunetal) probably had its eastern border check-point in Hohenmauthen (Muta), beyond which, down the Drava, began the dense Drava forest, which only thinned out again when it reached Marburg (modern Maribor, which first appeared after 1147). In Feistritz (Bistrica pri Rušah, approx. 10 km west of Maribor and which as of 1992 forms part of Bistrica ob Dravi) lay an internal border customs point which is attested from 1093, where it is named as a customs point of the "March of Pettau", an alternative name for the march which is derived from its central settlement Pettau (modern Ptuj).

The course of the Wölka-Tschermenitzen (Slovene: Velka Črmenica) ditches were accepted as the border within the Drava forest itself. The territories west of this line — Mahrenberg (Radlje ob Dravi), Hohenmauthen (Muta), Saldenhofen (Vuzenica) and Windischgraz (Slovenj Gradec) — still belonged in the narrow sense to the Duchy of Carinthia (from 976). In the north the march extended as far as the crest of the Kozjak Mountains, in the east to the river Mur and in the south to the Sann-Drann-watershed. The eastern border with the Kingdom of Hungary was poorly defined; the lordship of Ankenstein (Borl) was an autonomous territory (Allod) until the reign of Maximilian I; Polstrau (Središče ob Dravi) on the other hand was a Hungarian fief of the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg until 1803. (Ebner)

Following the German victory at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 the Hungarian threat was lifted for the time being, and in the subsequent years (970–980) the Holy Roman Empire was secured through the establishment of a wide belt of border marches against south-eastern threats. These included the March of Austria (contemporarily Marcha orientalis in Latin or Ostarrîchi in Old High German), the Mark an der Mur (the Carantanian march, later the March of Styria), the Mark an der Drau, the Mark an der Sann (which at that time extended far to the south over the Sava river and encompassed the Windic March), and the Marches of Carniola and Istria. The marches of Verona and Friuli had already been integrated into what would become the northern half of the empire by 952.

A count (Graf) named Rachwin was mentioned in 980, in whose Grafschaft (county) a man named Willihalm (father of the later Margrave Wilhelm von der Sann) was granted the later lordship of Weitenstein (Vitanje) by Kaiser Otto II.

In 985 due to the intervention of Duke Henry of Carinthia, Otto III gave count Rachwin 15 Königshufen (a unit of land equivalent to the Scottish and English Oxgang) in Rosswein (Razvanje, south of Maribor). This is probably the same count Rachwin who was named in 980.

Until about 1005 the territory of Aribo, Markgraf im Jaunetal (Margrave in the Jaun valley) was administered by a brother of bishop Albuin of Brixen and member of the Aribonids, and who held large amounts of lucrative property in Bavaria, Salzburg, Carinthia and Styria (namely around Leoben and Straßgang), as well as in the Drava and Sann (Savinja) marches.