The Alps

An immense mountain range, 1200 km (746 mi) long from west to east and up to 350 km (217 mi) wide, forms a barrier of rock, snow and ice through the middle of Europe: the Alps. Eight countries share in them: France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and the small states of Liechtenstein and Monaco. The mountains seem inaccessible and hostile to life, but they are an ancient cultural landscape travelled, utilised and settled by humans since earliest times.