Geography of the Pyrenees

This article treats Géographie chain the Pyrenees .

Physical geography

In physical Géographie, the Pyrenees form a chain of rectilinear pace, rather narrow, an overall length of 430 kilometers of the Cape de Creus side the Mediterranean with the Cape of the Fig tree - mount Jaizkibel side Atlantique (510 kilometers if one includes the chain of the Basque Montagnes there). Its extension in width is also to fix: roughly the Pyrenean Piedmont is diluted Spanish side in the basin of Èbre, and side French in the Aquitanian Bassin (Adour - the Garonne) Atlantic direction, and in the low valley of the Aude Mediterranean direction. However the maximum zone of high mountain atteind 100 km in width.

Its valleys narrow, deep and are directed North-South in their majority (with some notable exceptions like the Vallée of Ordesa), and his high summits are shelled without real discontinuity, which explains why from one end to another of the chain, there exists little of practicable points of passage between the northern slope and the southern slope. Thus the Franco-Spanish Frontière follows about the line of the peaks, i.e. the watershed, which corresponds thus to a border climatic and thus vegetable (see Climat of the Pyrenees and Végétation of the Pyrenees). Principal exception to this rule being formed by the Valley of Aran, which depends on Spain but is located on the northern slope of the solid mass, and the Spanish enclave of the town of Llívia.

Of west in is, one distinguishes three surfaces from mountains:

the the Pyrenees Atlantic , still called the the low Pyrenees . They extend between the the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic) and the Pic of Annie, they are relatively low, not exceeding the 2.000 m, the collars are thus also rather relatively low (example: the Collar of Roncevaux, 1057 meters) but the valleys can be very boxed (example: Throats of Kakouetta)
the the central Pyrenees between the Peak of Annie and the Collar of Puymorens (Ariège). It is there that one finds the most tops exceeding 3000 meters (see the article Pyrenean Liste UIAA of the 3000) like the Aneto (more high summit of the Pyrenees with its 3404 meters) or Vignemale (more high summit French side with 3298 meters). There exists at this place little point of passage between the France and the Spain (Col of Somport, Col of Puymorens).
the the Pyrenees Eastern , still called the Catalan Pyrenees . They include/understand the zone in the east of the Col of Puymorens until the the Mediterranean. Less high than the central Pyrenees, there exist nevertheless high summits like the Mont Canigou (2 784 m), the Carlit (2 921 m), the Puigmal (2 910 m)… and of large solid mass natural like the Massif of Corbières. In Orography, among the anomalies, the fall Cerdagne located on the southern slope of the chain is included.

Human geography

In human Geography, the contour of the solid mass can be drawn up according to the law Montagne dated January 9th, 1985, the Pyrenean Solid mass is consisted " each mountainous area and the zones which are immediately contiguous for him and which form with it the same geographical entity, economic and sociale" (Art.5L n°85-30). It is a unit of fitting-out and programming.

By comparing the two charts one can note that:

the zone of Pampelune is not considered in the Pyrenees with the human direction, because according to the criteria of the law mountain, it is about an urban area with too strong density to be regarded as mountainous area.
the province of Alava and Biscay in the west are included in the solid mass, that means that the zone of the Basque Montagnes is attached economically and humanly to the zone of the Pyrenees.

Notes and references of the article

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