Salève
| Mont Salève | |
|---|---|
 Mont Salève
Location in France
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,379 m (4,524 ft) |
| Prominence | 578 m (1,896 ft) |
| Coordinates | 46°05′39″N 6°08′25″E / 46.09417°N 6.14028°ECoordinates: 46°05′39″N 6°08′25″E / 46.09417°N 6.14028°E |
| Geography | |
| Location | Haute-Savoie, Rhône-Alpes, France |
| Parent range | French Prealps |
| Geology | |
| Age of rock | Jurassic to Cretaceous |
The Salève is a mountain of the French Prealps located in the departement of Haute-Savoie (France). It is also called the "Balcony of Geneva".
Geographically, the Salève is a mountain of the French Prealps located in the department of Haute-Savoie, but geologically a part of the Jura chain, as the Vuache is.
Below the Salève is the Geneva urban area where more than 700,000 people live.
The Salève consists of the Pitons, the Grand and the Petit Salève, and culminates at 1379 meters at the Grand Piton. It is accessible by a cable car since 1932 (rebuilt in 1983), the Salève stretches between Étrembières in the north and the suspension bridge de la Caille in the south. Between 1892 and 1935, the Salève was served by the first electric rack railway in the world.
The eastern side of the Salève dives under the molasse of the Bornes Massif while the abrupt mountain slope facing Geneva is subject to erosion. The vegetation - or its absence - enhances the limestone's layers. This side of the mountain is slit by several narrow and deep gorges, among which the Grande Varappe, which at the end of the 19th century gave its name to the activity of rock climbing in French. This discipline developed intensely there, at a time when it was only beginning.
The Monnetier valley, separating the Petit and the Grand Salève, is due to glaciary erosion. Modern geologists now think that this valley was dug by the subglaciary currents in a fissured region between the Petit and the Grand Salève, and not by the Arve as was assumed earlier.
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Wikipedia