Geography of the Alps

The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in an 800 km (500 mi) arc (curved line) from east to west and is

200 km (120 mi) in width. The mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km (1.6 mi).[12] The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north

above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble, and stretching eastward through mid and southern Switzerland. The range

continues onward toward Vienna, Austria, and east to the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia.[13][14][15] To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the southern border of Bavaria in Germany.[15] In areas like Chiasso, Switzerland, and Allgäu,

Bavaria, the demarcation between the mountain range and the flatlands are clear; in other places such as Geneva, the demarcation is less clear. The countries with the greatest alpine territory are Austria (28.7% of the total area), Italy (27.2%), France (21.4%) and Switzerland (13.2%).[16]