Figure 1.--Building roads in Swutzerkand was no easy undertaing because of the mounaneous terraine. The Axenstrasse is a road between Brunnen in the canton of Schwyz and Flüelen in the canton of Uri in central Switzerland. The road was built along steep cliffs on the east side of the Urnersee (first part of the Lake Lucerne) weaving its way through rock fall galleries and tunnels along its route. It was built in the 19th century and completed in 1865, a remarkable feat of engineeruing. The photo was taken in the 1920s. At that time there were very few cars. These women and girls had gone to collect wood. The girls went into the woods without shoes.

Switzerland is situated in the heart of Western Europe. It is one of the most mountainous countries in the world, exceeded by Tibet and Chile. Switzerland is a land-locked country bordering on five countries (France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Italy). Its emergence as a nation is largely due to kits mountainous terrain. Switzerland was just too difficult to conquer bcause of the mountains. Switzerland extends across the northern and southern side of the western Alps. There are three principal geographical regions: the Jura Mountains of the northwest, the central plateau, and the Alps in the south. The Jura Mountains dominate most of the border with France. This is the smallest of the three regions with about 15 percent of the population. The Jura are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps.J The Jura region was not historically part of historic Switzerland, It became part of Swiss Confederacy only in the 19th century. The eastern projection of the Jura separates the Rhine and Rhône basins. In the northeast, the Jura extend into the southern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The Central Highlands dominate much of the border with Austria. About half of the Swiss population live here. The Swiss Plateau has most of Switzerland's greater open and hilly landscapes. It is partly forested and partly open pastures providing areas for grazing animals or areas for vegetable gardens and fruit orchards. Large lakes and the country's biggest cities are found in this region. The Alps dominate the border with Austria and Italy. The Alps constitute nearly two-thirds of the country, but only a small fraction of the people live in this very mountainous area, about 25 percent. Most of Switzerland's great mountains are fiound here. Great rivers rise in mountain areas. The Swiss Alps contains many glaciers. They are the source of several major European rivers (the Rhine, Inn, Ticino, and Rhône) which flow out of Switzerland in the four cardinal directions meaning that they spreading across Europe. This hydrological network also includes some of the the largest fresh water lakes in Central and Western Europe (Lake Geneva, Lake Constance, and Lake Maggiore. Switzerland has some 1,500 lakes and which constitutes 6 percent of Europe's freshwater. Lake Geneva is the county's largest lake, ;art of the border with France. The Rhône is associated with Lake Geneva. Lake Constance is the second largest and associated with the Rhine. The Rhône flows south into Mediterranean Sea. The Rhine flows north into the North Sea at Rotterdam. Interestingly, the springs which give rise to these two great rivers are only 14 miles apart in the Alps.

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Created: July 24, 2003
Last updated: 7:28 PM 5/4/2020