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Geography of the Alps
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Geography of the Alps
The Alps form a large mountain range dominating Central Europe, including parts of Italy, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Germany and Hungary.
This article describes the delimitation of the Alps as a whole and of subdivisions of the range, follows the course of the main chain of the Alps and discusses the lakes and glaciers found in the region.
In some areas, such as the edge of the Po Basin, the edge of the Alps is unambiguous, but where the Alps border on other mountainous or hilly regions, the border may be harder to place. These neighbouring ranges include the Apennines, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Black Forest, the Bohemian Forest, the Carpathians, and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula.
The boundary between the Apennines and the Alps is usually taken to be the Colle di Cadibona, at 435 m above sea level, above Savona on the Italian coast.
The Rhône forms a clear boundary between the tectonically-formed Alps and the largely volcanically-formed Massif Central. Moving upstream, the Rhône turns to the east near Lyon, and passes to the south of the Jura range before reaching Lake Geneva. An area of flat ground reaches from there to Lake Neuchâtel, continuing the border, with the Jura to the north-west and the Alps to the south east. From Lake Neuchâtel to its confluence with the Rhine, the Aare forms the border.
The Black Forest is separated from the Alps by the Rhine and Lake Constance, but exact delimitation is difficult in southern Germany, where the land gently slopes up to meet the mountains (known in German as the Schwäbisch-Bayerisches Alpenvorland, the "Swabian-Bavarian pre-Alps").
In Austria, the Danube runs to the north of the Alps, separating it from the majority of the Bohemian Forest, although some small areas, such as the Dunkelsteiner Wald south of the Wachau, belong geologically to the Bohemian Forest despite being south of the Danube. The Vienna Woods near Vienna forms the north-eastern corner of the Alps, and here the Danube passes at its closest to the Alps (see Viennese Basin). East of Vienna, only the Marchfeld, a 30-km wide flood plain separates the easternmost Alps from the Lesser Carpathians. After Vienna, the Pannonian Basin, a large area of steppe, meets the edge of the Alps, clearly delimiting the eastern limit of the Alps.
The south-easternmost extension of the Alps is to be found in Slovenia, including Pohorje, the Kamnik Alps and the Julian Alps (the last being shared with Italy). The town of Idrija may be taken as marking the dividing line between the Alps to the north and the karst plateau to the south, which then leads on to the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula. The remainder of the southern edge of the Alps is clearly delimited by the basin of the Po.
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Geography of the Alps
The Alps form a large mountain range dominating Central Europe, including parts of Italy, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Germany and Hungary.
This article describes the delimitation of the Alps as a whole and of subdivisions of the range, follows the course of the main chain of the Alps and discusses the lakes and glaciers found in the region.
In some areas, such as the edge of the Po Basin, the edge of the Alps is unambiguous, but where the Alps border on other mountainous or hilly regions, the border may be harder to place. These neighbouring ranges include the Apennines, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Black Forest, the Bohemian Forest, the Carpathians, and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula.
The boundary between the Apennines and the Alps is usually taken to be the Colle di Cadibona, at 435 m above sea level, above Savona on the Italian coast.
The Rhône forms a clear boundary between the tectonically-formed Alps and the largely volcanically-formed Massif Central. Moving upstream, the Rhône turns to the east near Lyon, and passes to the south of the Jura range before reaching Lake Geneva. An area of flat ground reaches from there to Lake Neuchâtel, continuing the border, with the Jura to the north-west and the Alps to the south east. From Lake Neuchâtel to its confluence with the Rhine, the Aare forms the border.
The Black Forest is separated from the Alps by the Rhine and Lake Constance, but exact delimitation is difficult in southern Germany, where the land gently slopes up to meet the mountains (known in German as the Schwäbisch-Bayerisches Alpenvorland, the "Swabian-Bavarian pre-Alps").
In Austria, the Danube runs to the north of the Alps, separating it from the majority of the Bohemian Forest, although some small areas, such as the Dunkelsteiner Wald south of the Wachau, belong geologically to the Bohemian Forest despite being south of the Danube. The Vienna Woods near Vienna forms the north-eastern corner of the Alps, and here the Danube passes at its closest to the Alps (see Viennese Basin). East of Vienna, only the Marchfeld, a 30-km wide flood plain separates the easternmost Alps from the Lesser Carpathians. After Vienna, the Pannonian Basin, a large area of steppe, meets the edge of the Alps, clearly delimiting the eastern limit of the Alps.
The south-easternmost extension of the Alps is to be found in Slovenia, including Pohorje, the Kamnik Alps and the Julian Alps (the last being shared with Italy). The town of Idrija may be taken as marking the dividing line between the Alps to the north and the karst plateau to the south, which then leads on to the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula. The remainder of the southern edge of the Alps is clearly delimited by the basin of the Po.
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