Editing Alps (section)

== Geography ==
{{main|Geography of the Alps}}
[[File:Alps with borders.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Alps extend in an arc from France in the south and west to Slovenia in the east, and from Monaco in the south to Germany in the north.]]
The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in an {{cvt|800|km|-1}} arc (curved line) from east to west and is {{cvt|200|km|-1}} in width. The mean height of the mountain peaks is {{cvt|2.5|km|1}}.<ref name="Ceben 22–24"/> The range stretches from the [[Mediterranean Sea]] north above the [[Po (river)|Po]] basin, extending through France from [[Grenoble]], and stretching eastward through mid and southern Switzerland. The range continues onward toward [[Vienna]], Austria, and southeast to the [[Adriatic Sea]] and [[Slovenia]].<ref name = "Chatré9">Chatré, Baptiste, et al. (2010), 9</ref><ref>Fleming (2000), 1</ref><ref name="Beattie xii–xiii"/>

To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the southern border of [[Bavaria]] in Germany.<ref name="Beattie xii–xiii">Beattie (2006), xii–xiii</ref> 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 Alps are found in the following countries: Austria (28.7% of the range's area), Italy (27.2%), France (21.4%), Switzerland (13.2%), Germany (5.8%), Slovenia (3.6%), Liechtenstein (0.08%) and Monaco (0.001%).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.alpconv.org/en/convention/smallbites/thealps/default.html |title=Alpine Convention - the Convention - the Alpine Convention in a nutshell - the Alps - Home |access-date=March 9, 2019 |archive-date=September 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925102533/http://www.alpconv.org/en/convention/smallbites/thealps/default.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:2016 1129 KL1556 Monte Rosa Matterhorn.jpg|thumb|left|Aerial view of the [[Pennine Alps]], the second-highest range of the Alps]]
The highest portion of the range is divided by the glacial trough of the [[Rhône]] valley, from [[Mont Blanc]] to the [[Matterhorn]] and [[Monte Rosa]] on the southern side, and the [[Bernese Alps]] on the northern. The peaks in the easterly portion of the range, in Austria and Slovenia, are smaller than those in the central and western portions.<ref name="Beattie xii–xiii" />

The variances in nomenclature in the region spanned by the Alps make classification of the mountains and subregions difficult, but a general classification is that of the [[Eastern Alps]] and [[Western Alps]] with the divide between the two occurring in eastern Switzerland according to geologist Stefan Schmid,<ref name=Schmid93/> near the [[Splügen Pass]].
[[File:Lanersbach.jpg|thumb|A typical alpine village in the [[Tuxertal]] valley of [[Tyrol (federal state)|Tyrol]], Austria]]
The highest peaks of the Western Alps and Eastern Alps, respectively, are Mont Blanc, at {{cvt|4810|m|ft|-1}},<ref>Shoumtoff (2001), 23</ref> and [[Piz Bernina]], at {{cvt|4049|m|0}}. The second-highest major peaks are [[Monte Rosa]], at {{cvt|4634|m|0}}, and [[Ortler]],<ref>Excluding the [[Piz Zupò]] and [[Piz Roseg]] located in the Bernina range, close to Piz Bernina.</ref> at {{cvt|3905|m|-1}}, respectively.

A series of lower mountain ranges run parallel to the main chain of the Alps, including the [[French Prealps]] in France and the [[Jura Mountains]] in Switzerland and France. The secondary chain of the Alps follows the [[drainage divide|watershed]] from the Mediterranean Sea to the [[Vienna Woods|Wienerwald]], passing over many of the highest and most well-known peaks in the Alps. From the Colle di Cadibona to [[Col de Tende]] it runs westwards, before turning to the northwest and then, near the [[Maddalena Pass|Colle della Maddalena]], to the north. Upon reaching the Swiss border, the line of the main chain heads approximately east-northeast, a heading it follows until its end near Vienna.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Alps|title=Alps {{!}} Definition, Map, & Facts|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|language=en|access-date=February 4, 2019|archive-date=June 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613024019/https://www.britannica.com/place/Alps|url-status=live}}</ref>

The northeast end of the Alpine arc, directly on the [[Danube]], which flows into the Black Sea, is the [[Leopoldsberg]] near Vienna. In contrast, the southeastern part of the Alps ends on the [[Adriatic Sea]] in the area around Trieste towards [[Duino]] and [[Barcola]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.alpenpaesse-wasserscheiden.at/italien/das-alpine-einzugsgebiet-der-adria-excl-po-gebiet-innerer-alpenbogen/das-triestiner-kuestengebiet/ |title=Die Alpen: Hydrologie und Verkehrsübergänge (German) |access-date=June 14, 2020 |archive-date=November 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103195312/https://www.alpenpaesse-wasserscheiden.at/italien/das-alpine-einzugsgebiet-der-adria-excl-po-gebiet-innerer-alpenbogen/das-triestiner-kuestengebiet/ |url-status=live }}</ref>