Vosges Mountains

area 7425 km²/2866 sq mi. Range of hills in NE France near the Franco-German frontier; separated from the Jura (S) by the Belfort Gap; thickly-wooded hills, several rivers descending to the Rhine and the Central Plateau; highest point, Ballon de Guebwiller (1423 m/4669 ft); length, 250 km/155 mi; skiing and rock climbing.

The Vosges mountains is a range in central-western Europe, stretching along the west side of the Rhine valley in a NNE direction, from Basel (Switzerland) to Mainz (Germany). Geographically, the Vosges mountains are completely located in France with the Col de Saverne separating it from the Pfälzer Wald. Geologically, though, some parts of the Pfälzer Wald are considered to belong to the Vosges and, in fact, the French part of the Pfälzer Wald is commonly seen as part of the northern Vosges.

From 1871 to 1918 the southern portion, from the Ballon d'Alsace to Mont Donon, was the frontier between France and Germany. There is a remarkable similarity between the Vosges and the corresponding range of the Black Forest on the other side of the Rhine: both lie within the same degrees of latitude and have the same geological formation; The Vosges in their southern portion are mainly of granite, with some porphyritic masses and of a kind of red sandstone (occasionally 1640 ft.

Orographically the range is divided south to north into four sections: the Grandes Vosges (62 rn (?)), extending from Belfort to the valley of the Bruche; the Central Vosges (31 miles), between the Bruche and the Col de Saverne; the Lower Vosges (30 miles), between the Col de Saverne and the source of the Lauter; The rounded summits of the Grandes Vosges are called ballons.

The départements of Vosges and Haute Saône are divided from Alsace and the territory of Belfort by the Ballon d'Alsace or St Maurice (4100 ft.). Thence northwards the average height of the range is 3000 ft., the highest point, the Ballon de Guebwiller (Gebweiler), or Soultz, rising to the east of the main chain to 4,680 ft. The Col de Saales, between the Grandes Vosges and the central section, is nearly 1900 ft. the latter is both lower and narrower than the Grandes Vosges, the Mont Donon (3307 ft.) being the highest summit. No railway crosses the Vosges between Saverne and Belfort, but there are carriage roads over the passes of Bussang from Remiremont to Thann, the Schlucht (3766 ft) from Gérardmer to Munster, the Bonhomine from St Dié to Colmar and the pass from St Die to Ste Marie-aux-Mines. The Lower Vosges are a sandstone plateau ranging from 1000 to 1850 ft.

Meteorologically the difference between the eastern and western versants of the range is very marked, the annual rainfall being much higher and the mean temperature being much lower in the latter than in the former.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.