How High are The Alps?
The Alps are huge mountains located on some European countries like France, Italy and Austria, and a few of the places in them are tourist attractions frequented by many tourists round the world, and during this topic we are going to study the peak of chain of mountains and its location, and a few important information associated with it.
Alps
The Alps are known in Italian because the Alpi, in French because the Alpes, and in Germany because the Alpen, which is that the chain of mountains within the European continent extending from the east to Austria and Slovenia, passing through Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein and Germany, and reaching the west in France.
The Alps board which individuals and living creatures of every kind live, and also these mountains are characterized by diversity and the multi culture that helped their rapid development, and also the area of the Alps is characterized by its adjacent plains.
As it could be a major source of water resources and energy, and one amongst its most vital characteristics is that it produces abundant and abundant timber, and produces prime quality foodstuffs.
Its natural areas are biologically diverse, because it constitutes the important recreational factor for all European citizens, and therefore the Alps are inhabited by nearly 14 million people.
It is visited by approximately 125 million tourists once a year, and there are main roads in these mountains estimated at 4,200 km, and nearly 6 million vehicles travel on its curved roads.
The Alps are distinguished by their abundant animal and plant wealth, as they contain nearly 13,000 plant species, and over 30,000 animal species.
These mountains have 550 power plants producing quite 10 megawatts annually, and over 195 million a lot of products and commodities meet up with these mountains once a year via land roads.
The height of the Alps is 4,807 kilometers, or approximately 15,771 feet, and also the highest peak of range of mountains is termed “Mont Blanc”.
These mountains cover over eighty thousand square miles; that’s 207 thousand square kilometers, with a distance of 750 miles, or an estimated 1200 km. Rainwater collects within these mountains in the Rhine, Rhone, Po and Danube rivers.
Alpine Dwellers
Humanity resided within the Alps nearly 60,000 years ago, i.e. within the Old time period, as they left some antiquities indicating their presence in several regions of the French and Austrian lands.
After rivers of ice returned to chain of mountains some four thousand years ago, Neolithic peoples inhabited the valleys.
They lived in caves and little settlements, which they built on the banks of lakes within the Alps.
Some sites that had a high population density were discovered near Lake Annecy along the shores of Lake Leman in Austria, the Aosta Valley, and also the Camonica Valley in Italy, within which nearly 20,000 rock engravings were discovered, indicating the residence of individuals during this place over two thousand years ago. .
From 800 to 600 BC, the Celts or Celts attacked the population within the Neolithic ages, forcing them to depart the region and head to the remote areas of the mountain. within the western region, the Celts occupied the place near the French, Swiss and Italian regions.
In addition to the Italian region of Aosta, Swiss people Martini, and also the French Grenbull.
And the Celts worked to open the high mountain passes to open the roads dedicated to business, and through the rule of the Romans they performed some expansion works for the traditional Celtic villages, and worked on the development of recent cities within the valleys resulting in Alps.
They also built cities within the mountains themselves, which gave rise to some flourishing cities like Martigny and Aosta.
Alpine Climate
The Alps, because of their largeness, isolate the regions of Europe from one another, in addition as separating the regions of the western coastal sea in Europe from the regions of the Mediterranean within the French, Italian and Balkan lands.
Which helps the Alps to make a definite climate influenced by the various heights, and therefore the distinctive sites of the eu countries from the west to the east.
Without addressing the final equatorial situation, there are areas crossed by these mountains that contain some diverse atmospheric condition, which differ greatly among themselves.
As these mountains are stricken by four basic climate, from the western region comes relatively moderate, humid air from the ocean, while the polar air from the northern European region decreases.
As for the continental air masses that control the eastern region, they’re cold and dry within the winter seasons, and intensely hot within the winter seasons.
In the southern region, dry medium air blows towards the northern region, and cyclonic storms blow daily within the Alps, and are greatly suffering from them with the direction of the winds that submit to them.
The air temperature and precipitation every year in these mountains are closely associated with physiology. The areas of valley bottoms are warmer than the encircling high places.
Snow falls heavily within the winter seasons on all high places, quite 5,000 feet.
Snow covers over 6,600 feet high places from mid-November to the tip of May, which prevents movement at these heights at now.
The average temperature within the valleys ranges from -5 degrees Celsius to 4 degrees Celsius during the month of January until it reaches eight degrees Celsius within the mountainous areas near the Mediterranean, but the temperatures in July range from a mean of 15 to 24 degrees Celsius.
Mostly, fog spreads over the valleys for some consecutive days during the autumn and winter season.
Alpine Economy
During the mid-19th century, the Alpine population relied heavily on agriculture and sheep herding.
Although these areas abandoned farms during a large way afterward, especially within the high valleys of the Italian and French regions and western Austrian regions, the agricultural field still exists in some basic and side valleys.
Where the Rhone Valley, located in Switzerland, is known for the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, additionally to the famous valleys and mountain slopes for the cultivation of so-called vines.
Since the Neolithic times, the economy of chain was supported industry and mining within the main, where iron was extracted from the assorted mountainous regions.
