Swiss Plateau

The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface area, and is partly flat but mostly hilly. The average height is between 400 metres and 700 metres AMSL. It is by far the most densely populated region of Switzerland, the center of economy and important transportation.

In the north and northwest, the Swiss Plateau is sharply delimited geographically and geologically by the Jura Mountains. In the south, there is no clear border with the Alps. Usually, the rising of the terrain to altitudes above 1500 metres AMSL , which is very abrupt in certain places, is taken as a criterion for delimitation. Occasionally the regions of the higher Swiss Plateau, especially the hills of the canton of Fribourg, the Napf region, the Töss region, the Toggenburg, and parts of the Appenzell region are considered to form the Swiss Alpine foreland in a narrow sense. However, if a division into the three main regions Jura Mountains, Swiss Plateau and Alps is considered, the Alpine foreland belongs clearly to the Swiss Plateau. In the southwest, the Swiss Plateau is confined by Lake Geneva, in the northeast, by Lake Constance and the Rhine.

More information

Comments Statistics

| | Public | Dutch • French • German • Italian • Spanish