The
Pyrenees (also spelled Pyrenées)
( ; ; ; ; ; ) are a range of
mountains in southwest Europe that form a
natural border between France
and Spain
.
They
separate the Iberian
Peninsula
from the
rest of continental Europe, and extend for about from the Bay of Biscay
(Cap Higuer) to the Mediterranean Sea
(Cap de
Creus
).
For the
most part, the main crest forms a massive divider between France
and Spain, with the tiny country of Andorra
sandwiched
in between. Catalonia
and the Basque Country have
historically extended on both sides of the mountain range, with
small northern portions in France and much larger southern parts in
Spain.
Etymology
Pyrene is the nymph of
classical mythology who, according to
legend, gave its name to the Pyrenees.
This legend attempts to explain how a mountain range that was
worshipped as a god by the early inhabitants came to be.
According to the legend, the hero
Heracles
came
Iberia, with the purpose of
stealing the oxen of Gerión, a monstrous giant who attempted to
possess the nymph Pyrene. But Pyrene fled and hid in an area
between Spain and France. Gerión then burned the entire area in
order to find her. Pyrene, on the verge of burning to death,
shrieked and cried in desperation, and her tears created the
mountain lakes. Heracles heard her and came to her rescue. When he
found her, the
nymph was already in agony and
only had time enough to tell the hero what has happened.
Heracles, deeply moved by Pyrene’s tragic ending, erected a
mausoleum over her dead body, by piling up all the stones and rocks
he could find, thus creating a great mountain range that he called
the Pyrenees in memory of Pyrene.
Geography
The
Spanish Pyrenees are part of the
following provinces, from east to
west: Girona
, Barcelona
, Lleida
, Huesca
, Navarra
, and
Guipúzcoa
.
The
French Pyrenees are also part of the
following département, from east to
west: Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude
, Ariège
, Haute-Garonne
, Hautes-Pyrénées
, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques
(the latter two of which include Pyrenees
National Park
).
The
independent principality of Andorra is
sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the
Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees.
Physiograpically, the Pyrenees
are typically divided into three sections: the Atlantic (or
Western), the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees. Together, they
form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System
division.
The
Central Pyrenees extend westward from the Aran Valley
to the Somport
pass, and
they include the highest summits of this range:
In the
Western Pyrenees, the average elevation gradually increases from
the west to the east, from the Basque
mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean
. In the Eastern Pyrenees, with the exception
of one break at the eastern extremity of the Pyrénées Ariégeoises,
the mean elevation is remarkably uniform until a sudden decline
occurs in the easternmost portion of the chain known as the
Albères.
Geology
The Pyrenees are older than the
Alps: their
sediments were first deposited in coastal
basins during the
Paleozoic and
Mesozoic eras. Between 100 and 150 million years
ago, during the Lower
Cretaceous period,
the Bay of Biscay
fanned out,
pushing present-day Spain against France and putting large layers
of
sediment in a vise grip. The intense
pressure and uplifting of the Earth's crust first affected the
eastern part and stretched progressively to the entire chain,
culminating in the
Eocene epoch.
The eastern part of the Pyrenees consists largely of
granite and
gneissose rocks,
while in the western part the granite peaks are flanked by layers
of
limestone. The massive and unworn
character of the chain comes from its abundance of
granite, which is particularly resistant to
erosion, as well as weak
glacial development.
Landscape
Conspicuous features of Pyrenean scenery are:
- the absence of great lakes, such as those
that fill the lateral valleys of the Alps
- the rarity and great elevation of passes
- the large number of the mountain torrents locally called
gaves, which often form lofty
waterfalls, surpassed in Europe only by
those of Scandinavia
- the frequency with which the upper end of a valley assumes the
form of a semicircle of precipitous cliffs, called a cirque.
The
highest waterfall is Gavarnie
(462 m or 1,515 ft), at the head of the
Gave de
Pau
; the Cirque de Gavarnie
, in the same valley, together with the nearby
Cirque de Troumouse and Cirque d'Estaubé
are notable examples of the cirque formation. Low passes are lacking, and
the principal roads and the railroads between France and Spain run
only in the lowlands at the western and eastern ends of the
Pyrenees, near sea level.
Between the two ends of the range, the only
passes worth mentioning are the Col de
la Perche, between the valley of the Têt
and the
valley of the Segre
, the
Port
d'Envalira
, the highest
mountain pass in the Pyrenees and one of the highest points of the
European road network, and the Col de Somport or Port de Canfranc, where there were old Roman roads, but apparently, no modern
highways.
A notable
visual feature of this mountain range
is La Brèche de
Roland
, a gap in the ridge line, which - according to
legend - was created by Roland.
Natural resources
A waterfall in the Spanish
Pyrenees
The
metallic ores of the Pyrenees are not in general
of much importance now, though there were iron
mines at Vie de Sos in Ariège and at the
foot of Canigou
in Pyrénées-Orientales long
ago. Coal deposits capable of being
profitably worked are situated chiefly on the Spanish slopes, but
the French side has beds of
lignite. The
open pit of Trimoun (Ariège) is one of the greatest sources of
talc in Europe.
Mineral springs are abundant and
remarkable, and especially noteworthy are the
hot springs, of which the Alps are very
deficient.
The hot springs, among which those of
Panticosa
, Lles, Bagnères-de-Luchon
and Eaux-Chaudes
may be mentioned, are sulphur
and mostly situated high, near the contact of the granite with the
stratified rocks. The lower springs, such as those of Bagnères-de-Bigorre
(Hautes-Pyrénées), Rennes-les-Bains
(Aude) and
Campagne-sur-Aude
(Aude), are mostly selenitic and not very
cold.
Climate
The
amount of the precipitation the range
receives, including rain and snow, is much greater in the western than in the
eastern Pyrenees, because of the moist air that blows in from the
Atlantic
Ocean over the Bay of Biscay. After dropping its moisture over the
western and central Pyrenees, the air is usually dry over the
eastern Pyrenees.
This all leads to a marked contrast between different sections of
the mountain range in more than one respect. Some
glaciers are found in the western and especially the
snowy central Pyrenees, but the eastern Pyrenees are without any
glaciers - with the quantity of snow falling there being
insufficient to cause their development. The glaciers are confined
to the northern slopes of the central Pyrenees, and do not descend,
like those of the Alps, far down into the valleys, but have their
greatest lengths along the direction of the mountain chain. They
form, in fact, in a narrow zone near the crest of the highest
mountains. Here, as in the other great mountain ranges of central
Europe, there is great evidence of a much wider extension of the
glaciers during the
Ice Ages. The case of
the glacier in the valley of Argeles Gazost, between Lourdes and
Gavarnie, in the
département of Hautes-Pyrénées is the
best-known instance.
The snow-line varies in different parts of the Pyrenees from about
2,700 to 2,800 meters above sea level.
Flora and fauna
A mountain stream
A still more marked effect of the preponderance of rainfall in the
western half of the chain is seen in the vegetation. The lower
mountains in the extreme west are wooded, but the extent of forest
declines eastwards, and the eastern Pyrenees are peculiarly wild
and barren, all the more since it is in this part of the chain that
granitic masses prevail. There is a change, moreover, in the
composition of the flora in passing from west to east.
In the west the flora
resembles that of central Europe, while in the east it is
distinctly Mediterranean in character, though the difference of
latitude is only about 1°, on both sides of the chain from the
centre whence the Corbières
stretch north-eastwards towards the central plateau
of France. The Pyrenees are relatively as rich in
endemic species as the Alps, and
among the most remarkable instances of that endemism is the
occurrence of the monotypic genus Xatardia (family Apiaceae), only on a high alpine pass between the
Val d'Eynes and Catalonia
. The genus most abundantly represented in
the range is that of the
saxifrages,
several species of which are endemic here.
The
Pyrenean Ibex mysteriously became
extinct in January 2000; the native Pyrenean brown bear was hunted to near-extinction in the
1990s, but it was re-introduced in 1996 when three bears were
brought from Slovenia
. The bear population has bred successfully,
and there are now believed to be about 15 brown bears in the
central region around Fos, but only four native ones are still
living in Aspe valley.
In their
fauna the Pyrenees present some
striking instances of
endemism.
The
Pyrenean Desman is found only in
some of the streams of the northern slopes of these mountains, but
the only other member of this genus are confined to the rivers of
the Caucasus in southern Russia
. The
Pyrenean euprocte (
Euproctus
pyrenaicus), an endemic relative of the
salamander, also lives in streams and lakes
located at high altitudes. Among the other peculiarities of the
Pyrenean fauna are blind insects in the
caverns of Ariège, the principal genera of which are
Anophthalmus and
Adelops.
Protected areas
Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park,
Spain
Principal nature reserves and national parks:
Demographics and culture
The
Pyrenean region possesses a varied ethnology, folklore and history: see Andorra; Aragon
; Ariege
; Basque Country;
Béarn; Catalonia; Navarre
; Roussillon. For
their history, see also
Almogavars,
Marca Hispanica.
The
principal languages spoken in the area are Spanish, French, Catalan (in Catalonia and Andorra), Basque, and Aragonese.
Also spoken, to a
lesser degree, are the Occitan
language (the Gascon and
Languedocien dialects in France and the
Aranese dialect in the Aran Valley).
Sports and leisure
Both sides of the Pyrenees are popular spots for winter sports such
as
alpine skiing and
mountaineering. The Pyrenees are also a good
place for European and North African athletes to do high-altitude
training in the summertime, such as by
bicycling and cross-country running.
In the summer and the autumn, the Pyrenees are usually featured in
two of cycling's epic grand tours, the
Tour de France held annually in July and the
Vuelta a España held in
September. The stages held in the Pyrenees are often crucial legs
of both tours, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators to the
region, too.
Three main
long-distance
footpaths run the length of the mountain range; the
GR 10 across the northern slopes, the
GR 11 across the southern slopes, and
the
HRP
which traverses peaks and ridges along a high altitude route. In
addition, there are numerous marked and unmarked trails throughout
the region.
Pirena is a dog-
mushing competition held in the Pyrenees.
Ski resorts
Ski resorts in the Pyrenees include:
Highest summits
Monte Perdido
- Aneto
(3,404 m)
- Posets
(3,375 m)
- Monte Perdido
(3,355 m)
- Pic Maudit (3,350 m)
- Cilindro de Marboré
(3,328 m)
- Pic de la Maladeta (3,308 m)
- Vignemale
(Pique Longue)
(3,298 m)
- Clot de la Hount
(3,289 m)
- Soum de Ramond
(3,263 m)
- Pic du Marboré
(3,248 m)
- Pic de Cerbillona
(3,247 m)
- Pic de Perdiguère
(3,222 m)
- Pic de Montferrat
(3,220 m)
- Pic
Long
(3,192 m)
- Pic Schrader (Grand Batchimale)
(3,177 m)
- Pic de Campbieil
(3,173 m)
- Pic de la cascade
orientale (3,161 m)
- Pic Badet (3,160 m)
- Pic du Balaïtous
(3,144 m)
- Pic du Taillon
(3,144 m)
- Pica d'Estats
(3,143 m)
- Punta del Sabre
(3,136 m)
- Pic de la Munia
(3,134 m)
- Pointe de Literole
(3,132 m)
- Pic des Gourgs Blancs
(3,129 m)
- Pic de Royo (3,121 m)
- Pic des Crabioules
(3,116 m)
- Pic de Maupas (3,109 m)
- Pic Lézat (3,107 m)
- Pic de la cascade
occidental (3,095 m)
- Pic de Néouvielle
(3,091 m)
- Pic de Troumouse
(3,085 m)
- Pics d'Enfer (3,082 m)
- Pic de Montcalm
(3,077 m)
- Grand pic d' Astazou
(3,077 m)
- Épaule du Marboré
(3,073 m)
- Pic du port de Sullo
(3,072 m)
- Pic des Spijeoles
(3,066 m)
- Pic de Quayrat
(3,060 m)
- Pic des Trois
Conseillers (3,039 m)
- Turon de Néouvielle
(3,035 m)
- Pic de Batoua (3,034 m)
- Petit Vignemale
(3,032 m)
- Pic de Besiberri Sud
(3,017 m)
- Pic Ramougn
(3,011 m)
- Tour du Marboré
(3,009 m)
- Casque du Marboré
(3,006 m)
- Grande Fache (3,005 m)
Notable summits below 3,000 metres
Pic du Midi d'Ossau
See also
References
Bibliography
Notes
- Preamble of the "Charter of the Catalan Language"
-
http://www.caiaragon.com/en/arbol/index.asp?idNodo=119&idNodoP=38
- Pays Toy Ski Resort
- 1 of 3 triology summits
External links
or Pic de Néthou in the Maladeta
ridge,
or Monte Perdido or Mont Perdut
.
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(Andorra)
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(Andorra)
(Spain)
(2,942 m) - highest point of Andorra
(2,913 m)
(2,894 m)
(2,886 m)
(2,885 m)
(2,876 m)
(2,786 m)
(2,740 m)
(2,655 m)
(2,562 m)
(2,504 m)
(2,017 m)
(905 m)
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