Geography
South Tyrol is located at the northernmost point in Italy. The province is bordered by Austria to the east and north, specifically by the Austrian federal-states Tyrol and Salzburg, and by the Swiss canton of Graubünden to the west. The Italian provinces of Trento, Belluno, and Sondrio border to the southeast, south, and southwest, respectively.
The landscape itself is mostly cultivated with different types of shrubs and forests and is highly mountainous.
Entirely located in the Alps, the province's landscape is dominated by mountains. The highest peak is the Ortler (3,905 m) in the far west, which is also the highest peak in the Eastern Alps outside the Bernina range. Even more famous are the craggy peaks of the Dolomites in the eastern part of the region.
The following mountain groups are (partially) in South Tyrol. All but the Sarntal Alps are on the border with Austria, Switzerland, or other Italian provinces. The ranges are clockwise from the west and for each the highest peak is given that is within the province or on its border.
| Name | Highest peak (German/Italian) | metres | feet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ortler Alps | Ortler/Ortles | 3,905 | 12,811 |
| Sesvenna Range | Muntpitschen/Monpiccio | 3,162 | 10,374 |
| Ötztal Alps | Weißkugel/Palla Bianca | 3,746 | 12,291 |
| Stubai Alps | Wilder Freiger/Cima Libera | 3,426 | 11,241 |
| Sarntal Alps | Hirzer/Punta Cervina | 2,781 | 9,124 |
| Zillertal Alps | Hochfeiler/Gran Pilastro | 3,510 | 11,515 |
| Hohe Tauern | Dreiherrnspitze/Picco dei Tre Signori | 3,499 | 11,480 |
| Eastern Dolomites | Dreischusterspitze/Punta Tre Scarperi | 3,152 | 10,341 |
| Western Dolomites | Langkofel/Sassolungo | 3,181 | 10,436 |
Located in between the mountains are a large number of valleys, which is where the majority of the population lives.
Read more about this topic: South Tyrol
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)