Where is Switzerland?

Situated at the hydrographic centre of Europe, Switzerland is the source of many major rivers. The two most important are the Rhone, which flows into the Mediterranean, and the Rhine, which empties into the North Sea. Switzerland's small area contains an unusual diversity of topographic elements, which are divisible into three distinct regions: the Jura Mountains in the north, the Alps to the south, and the Mittelland or central plateau between the two mountain ranges.

Facts about Switzerland..

Population: 7,283,274 (2001 official estimate)
Country: Switzerland (CH), size: 41,284 sq km
Capital: Bern (Zurich the largest city)
Currency: €
Time: GMT +2
Telephone Country Code: +358
Largest Cities: Zurich343,869 | Basel174,007 | Geneva173,549 | Bern127,469
Language: French, German, Italian, Romansh (official)
Ethnic Groups: 65%German, 18%French, 10%Italian, 7%Other including Spaniards, Romansh, and Turks

Travel Info by REGIONS:
South East | South West | North East | North West

Languages

The official languages of Switzerland are German (spoken by 65 percent of the population), French (18 percent), and Italian (10 percent). The fourth national language, Romansch, is spoken by less than 1 percent of the people. Other languages spoken include Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish. In a majority of the cantons the most commonly spoken language is Schwyzertutsch (Swiss German), an Allemanic dialect of German differing vastly from both written German and other German dialects. Newspapers and magazines are written in standard German, however, and German is the language of many theater, motion picture, and television productions. French is the most commonly spoken language in the cantons of Fribourg, Jura, Vaud, Valais, Neuchatel, and Geneva, and Italian is the predominant language in Ticino.

History

In pre-Roman times the territory now known as Switzerland was inhabited by the Helvetii in the west and the Rhaetians, a people believed to have been related to the Etruscans, in the east. Julius Caesar and the Romans conquered the region, which they named Helvetia, in the 1st century bc, and it became thoroughly Romanized. During the Germanic invasions that swept over the Western Roman Empire in the 4th century ad, the Burgundians and the Alamanni conquered Helvetia.

Though a hand wedge fashioned by Paleolithic hunters, found at Pratteln near Basel in 1974, is at least 350,000 years old, human habitation in Switzerland was not significant until the last glacial period, the Wurm, approximately 30,000 years ago. At that time most of the land was covered by ice, many thousands of feet deep that flowed down from the Alps. But during interglacial periods nomadic hunters from encampments in the ice-free areas of the Jura and the Mittelland followed their prey, mainly reindeer and bear, into the high mountain valleys. Carved designs of animals and birds on antlers and bone, found in caves, illuminate this era of prehistory. After the melting of the glaciers, Neolithic cultures established themselves in parts of the Rhone and Rhine valleys, and from 1800 BC Bronze Age settlements were scattered throughout the Mittelland and Alpine valleys.

In 1276 Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty attempted to assert feudal rights in Switzerland, making his power a threat to the traditional liberties of the Swiss. To resist Rudolf¡¦s aggression, the three so-called forest cantons¡XUri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden¡Xaround the Lake of Lucerne, entered a league for mutual defense in 1291. During the 14th century Zurich, Glarus, Bern, Lucerne, and Zug joined the league, and in the 15th century Fribourg and Solothurn joined. In 1474 the Habsburgs, unable to cope with the militant Swiss mountaineers, abandoned their attempts to acquire the region as a family appanage, and the Swiss confederation became directly dependent on the empire.

Travel Destinations by Regions

South East | South West | North East | North West

Transportation

Swiss Federal Railway (SBB): http://www.rail.ch/

EuroRail : http://www.raileurope.com/us/

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France and Italy
Youth
Any 4 days unlimited train travel within 2 months
2nd class train travel
Any 4 days in 2 months
$199 Additional rail day (6 max.) $21

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