The Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austriaand Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west.
The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc, at 4,808 metres (15,774 ft), on the Italian–French border. All the main peaks of the Alps can be found in the list of mountains of the Alpsand list of Alpine peaks by prominence.
The Western Alps are commonly subdivided with respect to geography:
Series of lower mountain ranges run parallel to the main chain of the Alps, including the French Prealps.
The geologic subdivision is different and makes no difference between the Western and Eastern Alps: the Helveticum in the north, thePenninicum and Austroalpine system in the center and, south of the Periadriatic Seam, the Southern Alpine system and parts of the Dinarides. Geographically, the Jura Mountains do not belong to the Alps; geologically, however, they do.
The higher regions of the Alps were long left to the exclusive attention of the people of the adjoining valleys even when Alpine travellers (as distinguished from Alpine climbers) began to visit these valleys. The two men who first explored the regions of ice and snow were H.B. de Saussure (1740–1799) in the Pennine Alps and the Benedictine monk of Disentis Placidus a Spescha (1752–1833), most of whose ascents were made before 1806 in the valleys at the sources of the Rhine.
take from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alps
