Mountains and passes

The Alps shape Switzerland. Passes lead over the mountains. A pass is the lowest point where you can cross a mountain range. Well-known Alpine passes are the Gotthard, the Simplon and the Great St Bernard. For centuries they have connected the north with Italy. Today important roads and tunnels also run through there.

Cantons with many high mountains are called mountain cantons. Examples are Valais, Graubünden, Uri and Ticino. Valais has the most four-thousand-metre peaks in Switzerland. Cantons such as Zurich, Aargau or Schaffhausen, on the other hand, lie in the Plateau or on the Rhine and have no high mountains.

The highest point in Switzerland is the Dufourspitze in Valais, 4634 metres high. It belongs to the Monte Rosa massif on the border with Italy. But the most famous mountain is the Matterhorn near Zermatt with its pointed pyramid shape. It is 4478 metres high and can be seen on many pictures and packages.

Memory aid: The Matterhorn is the best-known mountain, the Dufourspitze the highest.