The Eastern Alps are usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley, up to the Splügen Pass at the Alpine divide, and down the Liro River to Lake Como in the south. The peaks and mountain passes are lower than the Western Alps, while the range itself is broader and less arched.
Piz Bernina (centre-left) with the Biancograt to the left, Piz Scerscen (centre-right) and Piz Roseg (right), seen from Piz Corvatsch
Delimitation of Western and Eastern Alps
The Upper Engadin valley near St Moritz.
Zuers at the Flexenpass in Vorarlberg.
The main chain of the Alps, also called the Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the drainage divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest peaks of a range. The Alps are something of an unusual case in that several significant groups of mountains are separated from the main chain by sizable distances. Among these groups are the Dauphine Alps, the Eastern and Western Graians, the entire Bernese Alps, the Tödi, Albula and Silvretta groups, the Ortler and Adamello ranges, and the Dolomites of South Tyrol, as well as the lower Alps of Vorarlberg, Bavaria, and Salzburg.
Main chain of the Alps
Main ridge (Fuscherkarkopf) in the Hohe Tauern range
View of the Witenwasserenstock with the tripoint between the Rhone, Rhine, and Po basins (center left)