Bernese Alps, Valais and Bern cantons, Switzerland, Switzerland
The Jungfrau-Aletsch region in the Swiss Alps encompasses the largest glacier in the Alps — the 23-kilometre Aletsch Glacier — and the most heavily glaciated area in western Eurasia. The landscape includes several of the highest peaks in the Alps, the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau, whose north faces present some of the most challenging and most storied mountaineering terrain in the world. The glacier is a critical freshwater reservoir for much of central Europe and a reference site for climate science: its retreat over the past 150 years is one of the most visually documented examples of glacier loss on the planet.
Glacial landscape formed during the last Ice Age; Aletsch Glacier approximately 10,000 years old in current form; UNESCO inscribed 2001, extended 2007
