Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In his commentary on the Aeneid of Virgil, the late fourth-century grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus says that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. [9] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb "hill"; "Albania" is a related derivation.
The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. [2] While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared with other countries such as France ...
Troops under Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov crossing the Alps in 1799, by Vasily Surikov Napoleon passing the Great St Bernard Pass, by Edouard Castres. The French historian Fernand Braudel, in his famous volume on Mediterranean civilisation, describes the Alps as "an exceptional range of mountains from the point of view of resources, collective disciplines, the quality of its human ...
While smaller groups within the Alps may be easily defined by the passes on either side, defining larger units can be problematic. A traditional divide exists between the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, which uses the Splügen Pass (Italian: Passo dello Spluga) on the Swiss-Italian border, together with the Rhine to the north and Lake Como in the south as the defining features.
The alphorn (German: Alphorn, Alpenhorn; French: cor des Alpes; Italian: corno alpino) is a traditional lip-reed wind instrument originating from the European Alps. It consists of a very long straight wooden natural horn, with a length of 3 to 4 metres (9.8 to 13 feet), a conical bore and a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece.
The Alps form part of a Cenozoic orogenic belt of mountain chains, called the Alpide belt, that stretches through southern Europe and Asia from the Atlantic all the way to the Himalayas. This belt of mountain chains was formed during the Alpine orogeny. A gap in these mountain chains in central Europe separates the Alps from the Carpathians to
Articles relating to the Alps, the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, [a] [1] stretching approximately 1,200 km (750 mi) across eight countries in Western, Central and Southern Europe called the Alpine countries of which measured by Population are Germany, France, Italy, Austria Switzerland, Slovenia ...
Main chain of the Alps. The main chain of the Alps, also called the Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the drainage divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest peaks of a range.