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Image of the Swiss Alps, covered in snow during the daytime. The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, [1] represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions.
The two main mountain ranges are the Alps (south and east) and the Jura (north and west), separated by the Swiss Plateau which also includes a large number of hills. Topographically, the three most important summits of Switzerland are those of Monte Rosa (most elevated), the Finsteraarhorn (most prominent) and Piz Bernina (most isolated).
There are over 350 such summits exceeding 3,600 m in Switzerland, [1] all located in the High Alps, in five cantons: [Nb 1] Valais, Bern, Graubünden, Uri, and Glarus. All mountain heights and prominences on the list are from the largest-scale maps available. [2]
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.
Map of the Aar basin. High Rhine. Aare. Limmat. Linth () . Lake Walen. Seeztal; Klöntal; Sernftal; Reuss. Lake Lucerne. Sarner Aa (Brünig Pass connects to the Aare ...
However, the Siegfried Map offered greater precision than the Dufour Map, by using a scale of 1:25,000 for the Swiss Plateau, the French Prealps, the Jura Mountains and southern Ticino, and a scale of 1:50,000 for other mountain regions and the Swiss Alps.
On the other hand, in the 1930s, when the current Italian 1:25.000 topographic map of the region was created, the Passo del Vannino, northwest of the Ofenhorn, was covered by the Lebendun glacier and was measured to be 2,754 m, while the much more recent Swisstopo map shows it to be bare and 2,717 m high.
Most of the 26 canton high points are located in the Swiss Alps. Others (with lower altitudes), are located in the Jura Mountains. The 14 lower summits (up to the Säntis) are within the hiking trail network. The ascent of the 11 higher summits involves rock climbing or glacier touring. Canton high points are shown as red dots.