Pyrenees

:For other meanings see: Pyrenees, Victoria and Montes Pyrenaeus.

Landscape

Conspicuous features of Pyrenean scenery are:

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• the absence of great lakes, such as fill the lateral valleys of the Alps
• the rarity and great elevation of passes
• the large number of the mountain torrents locally called gaves, which often form lofty waterfalls, surpassed in Europe only by those of Scandinavia
• the frequency with which the upper end of a valley assumes the form of a semicircle of precipitous cliffs, locally called a cirque.

The highest waterfall is that of Gavarnie (462 m / 1,515 ft), at the head of the Gave de Pau; the Cirque de Gavarnie, in the same valley, is perhaps the most famous example of the cirque formation. Low passes are lacking; between the two end of the range, where the principal roads and the railways run between France and Spain, there are only the Col de la Perche, between the valley of the Têt and the valley of the Segre, and the Col de Somport or Port de Canfranc, on the old Roman road from Saragossa to Oloron-Sainte-Marie.

Related Topics:
Gavarnie - Gave de Pau - Cirque de Gavarnie - Col de la Perche - Têt - Segre - Col de Somport - Roman road - Saragossa - Oloron-Sainte-Marie

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A particularly notable feature is La Brèche de Roland, a gap in the ridge line, in tradition created by Roland.

Related Topics:
La Brèche de Roland - Roland

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