1.
Naters
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Naters is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Naters is first mentioned in 1018 as Nares, Naters has an area, as of 2011, of 101.3 square kilometers. Of this area,16. 5% is used for agricultural purposes, of the rest of the land,1. 8% is settled and 72. 7% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the Brig district, on the bank of the Rhone river on the gently sloping alluvial country around the Kelchbach. It covers the entire Natischer mountain between Kelchbach and the Mass and it consists of the villages of Naters, Hegdorn, Geimen, Mehlbaum, Rischinen and Blatten. The blazon of the coat of arms is Gules, between two Crosiers Or in saltire in chief a Mitre of the same. Naters has a population of 9,808, as of 2008,11. 9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 6. 9% and it has changed at a rate of 5. 7% due to migration and at a rate of -0. 1% due to births and deaths. Most of the population speaks German as their first language, Italian is the second most common, There are 79 people who speak French and 7 people who speak Romansh. As of 2008, the distribution of the population was 48. 4% male and 51. 6% female. The population was made up of 3,403 Swiss men and 512 non-Swiss men, There were 3,671 Swiss women and 510 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 3,252 or about 43. 3% were born in Naters and lived there in 2000. There were 2,579 or 34. 3% who were born in the canton, while 687 or 9. 1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 24. 1% of the population, while adults make up 59. 9%, as of 2000, there were 3,026 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 3,774 married individuals,451 widows or widowers and 264 individuals who are divorced, as of 2000, there were 3,020 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 869 households that consist of one person and 198 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 3,100 households that answered this question,28. 0% were households made up of just one person and there were 40 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 885 married couples without children,1,032 married couples with children There were 147 single parents with a child or children
2.
Valais
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The canton of Valais is widely known for the Matterhorn and resort towns such as Crans-Montana, Saas Fee and Zermatt. It is composed of 13 districts and its capital is Sion, the Romans called the upper Rhône valley Vallis Poenina. According to a tradition which can be traced back to the middle of the 8th century, from 888 onwards the lands were part of the kingdom of Jurane Burgundy. Valais formed part of the kingdom of Transjurane Burgundy, which fell to the Holy Roman Empire in 1032 and it became part of the duchy of Burgundia Minor, which was held from the emperors by the house of Zähringen. About the middle of the 13th century, the large communities began to develop independence, the name Zenden or tithings probably came from a very ancient division of the bishops manors for administrative and judicial purposes. In the same century the part of the valley was colonized by Germans from Hasli in the Canton of Bern. The locals became German speaking, though many Romance local names still remain, in 1354 the liberties of several of the seven Zenden were confirmed by the Emperor Charles IV. By the late 14th century, the counts of Savoy acquired the bishopric of Sion, the Zenden resisted his attempts to gather both spiritual and secular power in the valley. In 1375-76, Zenden forces crushed the army of the house of La Tour-Chatillon, and in 1388 utterly defeated the forces of the bishop, the German-speaking Zenden spread further into the valley. Starting in 1384 the Morge stream was recognized as the boundary between Savoyard, French-speaking Lower Valais and German-speaking episcopal Upper Valais, during the Raron affair rebellion in 1414 to 1420, some cantons of the Swiss Confederation took sides in the Valais. Lucerne, Uri and Unterwalden supported the Upper Valais rebels, while Bern supported the noble Raron family, the uprising was successful in driving out the Rarons, and almost brought the Confederation to civil war. Following the violence of the Raron affair, the canton was the location of the Valais witch trials between 1428 and 1447 in which at least 367 men and women were put to death and this event marks one of the earliest witch scares in late medieval Europe. The phenomenon later spread to parts of the contintent. With the election of Walther von Supersax of Conches as bishop in 1457, at the outbreak of the Burgundian War in 1475 the bishop of Sion and the Zenden made a treaty with Bern. In November of the year they seized all Lower or Savoyard Valais up to Martigny. In March 1476, after the victory of Grandson, they advanced and captured St Maurice, Évian, Thonon and they had to give up the last three districts in 1477, but won them again in 1536. In the treaty of Thonon in 1569, Monthey, Val-dllliez and these conquered districts in the Lower Valais were always ruled as subject lands by the bishop and Zenden of the Upper Valais. On March 12,1529, Valais became a member of the Swiss Confederation
3.
Riederalp
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Riederalp is a municipality in the district of Raron in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It was created in 2003 through the merger of Goppisberg, Greich, Riederalp has an area, as of 2011, of 21 square kilometers. Of this area,27. 7% is used for agricultural purposes, of the rest of the land,3. 0% is settled and 27. 3% is unproductive land. The mid-mountain resort sits on a terrace, south of the 23 km long Aletsch Glacier—Europes largest. The altitude of the village allows good view of the Pennine Alps with some of its highest summits such as the Fletschhorn, Dom, Riederalp has a population of 498. As of 2008,10. 6% of the population are resident foreign nationals, over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of -3. 9%. It has changed at a rate of -3. 9% due to migration, most of the population speaks German as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common and French is the third. As of 2008, the population was made up of 479 Swiss citizens and 57 non-citizen residents, as of 2000, children and teenagers make up 23. 9% of the population, while adults make up 59. 4% and seniors make up 16. 7%. As of 2009, the rate of new housing units was 9.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2010, was 1. 33%, the entire villages of Goppisberg and Greich are designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 69. 21% of the vote, the next three most popular parties were the SVP, the FDP and the SP. In the federal election, a total of 290 votes were cast, in the 2009 Conseil dEtat/Staatsrat election a total of 269 votes were cast, of which 20 or about 7. 4% were invalid. The voter participation was 68. 3%, which is more than the cantonal average of 54. 67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 288 votes were cast, the voter participation was 72. 9%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59. 88%. As of 2010, Riederalp had an unemployment rate of 2%, as of 2008, there were 62 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 9 people were employed in the sector and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 239 people were employed in the sector, with 37 businesses in this sector. In 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 240, the number of jobs in the primary sector was 24, all of which were in agriculture
4.
Aletsch Glacier
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The Aletsch Glacier or Great Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps. It has a length of about 23 km, has about a volume of 15.4 km3, the Aletsch Glacier is composed of four smaller glaciers converging at Concordia, where its thickness was measured by the ETH to be still near 1 km. It then continues towards the Rhône valley before giving birth to the Massa, the whole area, including other glaciers is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. The Aletsch Glacier is one of the many glaciers located between the cantons of Bern and Valais on the Bernese Alps located east of the Gemmi Pass, the whole area is considered to be the largest glaciated area in western Eurasia. The Fiescher and Aar Glaciers lying on the east have similar extensions, except the Finsteraarhorn, all the highest summits of the Bernese Alps are located within the drainage basin of the glacier. The Jungfrau and Mönch constitute the northern boundary, the Gross Fiescherhorn and Gross Wannenhorn lie on its east side, finally the culminating point, the Grosser Aletschfirn is supplied from the north by three notable firns, the Äbeni Flue-Firn, the Gletscherhornfirn, and the Kranzbergfirn. All of these firns have their points at around 3,800 m. From the Äbeni Flue-Firn to the Konkordiaplatz, the Grosser Aletschfirn is 9 km long and is on average about 1.5 km wide. On the west, the Grosser Aletschfirn connects with the Langgletscher over the 3,158 m high glacier pass, from the northwestern mouth flows the Jungfraufirn. This firn in fact represents the continuation of the Aletsch Glacier. It has its origin on the flank of the Mönch. Up to the Konkordiaplatz, the Jungfraufirn is a scarce 7 km long, and returns to flank the Kranzberg in the west, at its highest point, it is 2 km wide, and further down it is still a good 1 km wide. From the northern mouth flows the Ewigschneefäld, where its starting point takes the east flank of the Mönch, in an elbow, it flanks from Trugberg in the west and the Gross Fiescherhorn and Grünhorn in the east, flowing on to the Konkordiaplatz. Up to here, it is about 8 km long and averages about 1.2 km wide, the mouth at the Konkordiaplatz it follows over a rise with a descent from 25 to 30 percent, here, the glacier is sharply split. Against the north is the Ewigschneefäld over the pass of the Unners Mönchsjoch. Through the Obere Mönchsjoch between the Mönch and the Trugberg stands a connection to the Jungfraufirn, from the east, the smallest firn arrives at the Konkordiaplatz, the Grüneggfirn. Its northern arm begins below the Grünegghorn, the southern arm collects its snow and ice in the pot flanked by the Wyssnollen, Fiescher Gabelhorn, and the Chamm. Between the peaks Wyssnollen and Grünhörnli another glacier pass, the Grünhornlücke, the Grüneggfirn enters the Konkordiaplatz in a gap between the mountainsides Grünegg to the north and the Fülberg to the south
5.
Bernese Alps
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The Bernese Alps are a mountain range of the Alps, located in western Switzerland. The highest mountain in the range, the Finsteraarhorn, is also the highest point in the canton of Bern, the Bernese Alps are drained by the river Aare and its tributary the Saane in the north, the Rhône in the south, and the Reuss in the east. The principal ridge, a chain that runs 100 kilometres from west to east, whose highest peak is the Finsteraarhorn, except for the westernmost part, it is also the watershed between the Rhine and the Rhone. This chain is not centered inside the range but lies close to the Rhone on the south, there the mountains progressively become lower and disappear into the hilly Swiss Plateau. The main chain west of Gemmi Pass consists mainly of a few large prominent summits slightly above 3,000 metres, on the eastern part, the main chain became suddenly wider and the peaks reach over 4,000 metres, in the most glaciated part of the Alps. To the south the same portion of the range is divided from the still higher parallel range whose summits are the Aletschhorn and the Bietschhorn by the Lötschental. To this again succeeds the deep trench through which the part of the Aletsch Glacier flows down to the Rhone. Since strangers first began to visit the Alps, the names of Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, but unlike many other Alpine regions, which have been left to be explored by strangers, this region has been long visited by Swiss travellers and men of science. Among them were the brother Meyer of Aarau and Franz Joseph Hugi and they have explored most of the mountain ranges not very difficult of access, and, further than this, have attained most of the higher summits. The works of Desor and Gottlieb Studer have been followed by other publications that bear testimony to Swiss mountaineering activity. The Jungfrau-Aletsch area is located in the eastern Bernese Alps in the most glaciated region of the Alps and it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 and further expanded in 2007. Its name comes from the Aletsch Glacier and the two summits of the Jungfrau and Bietschhorn, which some of the most impressive features of the site. The actual site includes other large glacier valleys such as the Fiescher Glacier and the Aar Glaciers
6.
Swiss Alps
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The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. The Swiss Alps comprise almost all the highest mountains of the Alps, such as Dufourspitze, the Dom, the Liskamm, the Weisshorn, the other following major summits can be found in this list of mountains of Switzerland. Since the Middle Ages, transit across the Alps played an important role in history, the region north of St Gotthard Pass became the nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century. The Alps cover 65% of Switzerlands total 41,285 square kilometres surface area, making it one of the most alpine countries. The glaciers of the Swiss Alps cover an area of 1,220 square kilometres — 3% of the Swiss territory, the Swiss Alps are situated south of the Swiss Plateau and north of the national border. The limit between the Alps and the runs from Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva to Rorschach on the shores of Lake Constance, passing close to the cities of Thun. The not well defined regions in Switzerland that lie on the margin of the Alps, the Swiss Prealps are mainly made of limestone and they generally do not exceed 2,500 metres. The Alpine cantons are Valais, Bern, Graubünden, Uri, Glarus, Ticino, St. Gallen, Vaud, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Schwyz, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Fribourg, Lucerne and Zug. The countries with which Switzerland shares mountain ranges of the Alps are, France, Italy, Austria, the Alps are usually divided into two main parts, the Western Alps and Eastern Alps, whose division is along the Rhine from Lake Constance to the Splügen Pass. The western ranges occupy the greatest part of Switzerland while the more numerous eastern ranges are smaller and are all situated in the canton of Graubünden. The latter are part of the Central Eastern Alps, except the Ortler Alps which belong to the Southern Limestone Alps, the Pennine, Bernese and Bernina Range are the highest ranges of the country, they contain respectively 38,9 and 1 summit over 4000 metres. The lowest range is the Appenzell Alps culminating at 2,500 metres, Western Alps Eastern Alps The north side of the Swiss Alps is drained by the Rhône, Rhine and Inn while the south side is mainly drained by the Ticino. The rivers on the empty into the Mediterranean, North and Black Sea. The major triple watersheds in the Alps are located within the country, they are, Piz Lunghin, Witenwasserenstock, between the Witenwasserenstock and Piz Lunghin runs the European Watershed separating the basin of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. The European watershed lies in fact only partially on the main chain, Switzerland possesses 6% of Europes fresh water, and is sometimes referred to as the water tower of Europe. Since the highest dams are located in Alpine regions, many mountain lakes are artificial and are used as hydroelectric reservoirs. Some large artificial lakes can be found above 2,300 m, the melting of low-altitude glaciers can generate new lakes, such as the 0.25 km² large Triftsee which formed between 2002–2003. The following table gives the area above 2000 m and 3000 m
7.
Pennine Alps
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The Pennine Alps, also known as the Valais Alps, and formerly called Alpes Poeninae, are a mountain range in the western part of the Alps. They are located in Switzerland and Italy, the Italian side is drained by the rivers Dora Baltea, Sesia and Toce, tributaries of the Po. The Swiss side is drained by the Rhône, the Great St Bernard Tunnel, under the Great St Bernard Pass, leads from Martigny, Switzerland to Aosta. The main chain runs from west to east on the border between Italy and Switzerland, from Mont Vélan, the first high summit east of St Bernard Pass, the chain rarely goes below 3000 metres and contains many four-thousanders such as Matterhorn or Monte Rosa. Unlike many other ranges, the higher peaks are often located outside the main chain
8.
Dom (mountain)
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The Dom is a mountain of the Pennine Alps, located between Randa and Saas-Fee in the canton of Valais. With its 4,545 m summit it is the third highest mountain in the Alps, the Dom is the main summit of the Mischabel group, which is the highest massif lying entirely in Switzerland. Although Dom is a German cognate for dome, it can also mean cathedral and the mountain is named after Canon Berchtold of Sitten cathedral, the first person to survey the vicinity. The former name Mischabel comes from an ancient German dialect term for pitchfork, the chain lies entirely in the district of Visp. The two valleys separated by the range are the Mattertal on the west and the Saastal on the east, the towns of Randa and Saas-Fee lie both six kilometres from the summit. The elevation difference between the summit and the floor is 3,150 metres on the west side and 3,000 metres on the east side. On the Mattertal side, the Dom faces the almost equally high Weisshorn and, on the Saastal side, the Dom is the highest point of the Saastal and the second highest mountain of the Mattertal after Monte Rosa. Since the Dom is not on the main Alpine chain, the rivers flowing on both the west and east side of the end up in the same major river, the Rhone, through the Mattervispa. The Dom is the highest mountain in the Alps with this peculiarity, the Mischabel group includes many subsidiary summits above 4,000 metres. To the north lies the Nadelgrat, composed of the Lenzspitze, the Nadelhorn, the Stecknadelhorn, the Hohberghorn, the Nadelgrat is easily visible from the north and gives the massif its characteristic pitchfork appearance. The second highest peak of the massif, the Täschhorn to the south, culminates at 4,491 metres, in total, eight summits above 4,000 metres make up the Mischabel massif. Other important peaks of the massif are the Ulrichshorn and the Balfrin, the Dom has a western shoulder and an eastern shoulder. The massif is almost entirely composed of gneiss from the Siviez-Mischabel nappe, the latter is part of the Briançonnais microcontinent and is located in the Penninic nappes. The Dom is a depositional mountain, the first ascent was made from the Festigrat by the Reverend John Llewelyn-Davies with guides Johann Zumtaugwald, Johann Krönig and Hieronymous Brantschen on 11 September 1858. They traversed the west face to reach the Festigrat before arriving to the summit, the first complete ascent on the western ridge was made later in 1882 by Paul Güssfeldt and guides Alexander Burgener and B. The direct route on the west face was first ascended in 1962, the 1000-metre-high east face above Saas-Fee was climbed in 1875 by J. Petrus, A. and W. Puckle and L. Noti. A route on the face was first made in August 1906 by Geoffrey Winthrop Young and R. G. Major. According to Young it was more dangerous than the south-west face of the nearby Täschhorn, which they had climbed two weeks earlier
9.
Matterhorn
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The Matterhorn is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a huge and near-symmetrical pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. The four steep faces, rising above the glaciers, face the four compass points and are split by the Hörnli, Furggen, Leone. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt in the canton of Valais to the north-east, just east of the Matterhorn is Theodul Pass, the main passage between the two valleys on its north and south sides and a trade route since the Roman Era. The Matterhorn was studied by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in the eighteenth century. It remained unclimbed after most of the other great Alpine peaks had been attained, the first ascent of the Matterhorn was finally made in 1865 from Zermatt by a party led by Edward Whymper but ended disastrously when four of its members fell to their deaths on the descent. That climb and disaster, later portrayed in films, marked the end of the golden age of alpinism. The north face was not climbed until 1931, and is amongst the three biggest north faces of the Alps, known as the ‘The Trilogy’, the west face, which is the highest of the four, was completely climbed only in 1962. It is estimated that over 500 alpinists have died on the Matterhorn since the first climb in 1865, making it one of the deadliest peaks in the world. The current shape of the mountain is the result of erosion due to multiple glaciers diverging from the peak, such as the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face. Sometimes referred to as the Mountain of Mountains, the Matterhorn has become an emblem of the Swiss Alps. Since the end of the 19th century, when railways were built in the area, each year a large number of mountaineers try to climb the Matterhorn from the Hörnli Hut via the northeast Hörnli ridge, the most popular route to the summit. Many trekkers also undertake the 10-day-long circuit around the mountain, the Matterhorn is part of the Swiss Federal Inventory of Natural Monuments since 1983. Decomposing Matterhorn yields Matter and Horn, here Matter is Matte in the case. Commonly, prepositions related to Zermatt are dropped as in Matterhorn, Mattertal, in Sebastian Münsters Cosmography, published in 1543, the name Matter is given to the Theodul Pass, which seems to be the origin of the present German name of the mountain. On Münsters topographical map this group is marked under the names of Augstalberg, the French name Cervin, from which the Italian term Cervino derives, stems from the Latin Mons Silvanus where silva, means forest which was corrupted to Selvin and then Servin. The change of the first letter s to c is attributed to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, servius Galba, in order to carry out Caesars orders, came with his legions from Allobroges to Octodurum in the Valais, and pitched his camp there. It is unknown when the new name of Servin, or Cervin, replaced the old, the Matterhorn is also named Gran Becca by the Valdôtains and Horu by the local Walliser German speaking people
10.
Ernest Cassel
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Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel GCB GCMG GCVO PC was a British merchant banker and capitalist. Born and raised in Prussia, he moved to Britain at the age of 17, Cassel was born in Cologne, in what is now Germany, the son of Amalia and Jacob Cassel. His father owned a bank, but the son Ernest arrived penniless in Liverpool. There he found employment with a firm of grain merchants, with an enormous capacity for hard work and a natural business sense, Cassel was soon in Paris working for a bank. Being of Prussian origin, the Franco-Prussian War forced him to move to a position in a London bank and he prospered and was soon putting together his own financial deals. His areas of interest were in mining, infrastructure and heavy industry, turkey was an early area of business ventures, but he soon had large interests in Sweden, the United States, South America, South Africa, and Egypt. One of the wealthiest men of his day, Cassel was a friend of King Edward VII, prime minister H. H. Asquith. In 1878, he married Annette Mary Maud Maxwell at Westminster and their only child, Amalia Mary Maud Cassel, married Wilfrid Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple. Cassell became a Roman Catholic at the behest of his wife, the establishment was surprised to find out that he had converted when he chose to be sworn into the Privy Council with the Catholic Bible. Cassel retired from active operations in 1910. He also built and endowed an Anglo-German Institute in 1911 in memory of King Edward VII and he owned a castle in Switzerland, Riederfurka, which could only be safely accessed on a mule. When the inhabitants of the town said they were going to make a better road to his property, he answered, If you do. Felix Somary, who tells this anecdote in his autobiography, visited him there in 1914 to persuade him that war was inevitable, Cassel had a famous art collection and many beautiful houses. He bred racehorses and owned Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket, after the early death of his wife Annette in 1881, he and his widowed sister Wilhemina helped each other bring up his daughter, Maude, and Wilheminas son and daughter. Maude also died as a woman, leaving him two granddaughters Mary and Edwina on whom he doted. He was particularly attached to Edwina, who looked after him in his old age and she later married Lord Louis Mountbatten. Cassels nephew was the barrister Sir Felix Cassel, who later became Judge Advocate-General to the Forces, Cassels friendship with the King and achievements in international finance earned him many British and foreign honours. Contemporary society gossip suggested that he demanded these as a return for his services, in 1899, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
