Pyrenees




The Pyrenees is a mountain range between Spain and France. Reaching a height of altitude at the peak of Aneto, it extends for about from its union with Cantabrian Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea.
For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between Spain and France, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between. Historically, the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre extended on both sides of the mountain range.

Etymology

In Greek mythology, Pyrene is a princess who gave her name to the Pyrenees. The Greek historian Herodotus says Pyrene is the name of a town in Celtic Europe. According to Silius Italicus, she was the virgin daughter of Bebryx, a king in Mediterranean Gaul by whom the hero Hercules was given hospitality during his quest to steal the cattle of Geryon during his famous Labours. Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his host's daughter. Pyrene gives birth to a serpent and runs away to the woods, afraid that her father will be angry. Alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention of wild beasts who tear her to pieces.
After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, finding the girl's lacerated remains. As is often the case in stories of this hero, the sober Hercules responds with heartbroken grief and remorse at the actions of his darker self, and lays Pyrene to rest tenderly, demanding that the surrounding geography join in mourning and preserve her name: "struck by Herculean voice, the mountaintops shudder at the ridges; he kept crying out with a sorrowful noise 'Pyrene!' and all the rock-cliffs and wild-beast haunts echo back 'Pyrene!' … The mountains hold on to the wept-over name through the ages." Pliny the Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania, but rejects it as fabulosa, highly fictional.
Other classical sources derived the name from the Greek word for fire, πῦρ. According to Greek historian Diodorus Siculus "in ancient times, we are told, certain herdsmen left a fire and the whole area of the mountains was entirely consumed; and due to this fire, since it raged continuously day after day, the surface of the earth was also burned and the mountains, because of what had taken place, were called the Pyrenees."

Geography

Political divisions

The Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west: Gerona, Barcelona, Lérida, Huesca, Navarra and Gipuzkoa.
The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements, from east to west: Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
The independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees.
, the highest mountain of the Pyrenees
in the Néouvielle massif
, Catalonia
, Occitanie
, Catalonia

Physiographical divisions

, the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections: the Atlantic, the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees. Together, they form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System division.
In the Western Pyrenees, from the Basque mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, the average elevation gradually increases from west to east.
The Central Pyrenees extend eastward from the Somport pass to the Aran Valley, and they include the highest summits of this range:
In the Eastern Pyrenees, with the exception of one break at the eastern extremity of the Pyrénées Ariègeoises in the Ariège area, the mean elevation is remarkably uniform until a sudden decline occurs in the easternmost portion of the chain known as the Albères.

Foothills

Most foothills of the Pyrenees are on the Spanish side, where there is a large and complex system of ranges stretching from Spanish Navarre, across northern Aragon and into Catalonia, almost reaching the Mediterranean coast with summits reaching. At the eastern end on the southern side lies a distinct area known as the Sub-Pyrenees.
On the French side the slopes of the main range descend abruptly and there are no foothills except in the Corbières Massif in the northeastern corner of the mountain system.

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 applying intense compressional pressure to large layers of sedimentary rock. The intense pressure and uplifting of the Earth's crust first affected the eastern part and moved 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.
The upper parts of the Pyrenees contain low-relief surfaces forming a peneplain. This peneplain originated no earlier than in Late Miocene times. Presumably it formed at height as extensive sedimentation raised the local base level considerably.

Landscape

Conspicuous features of Pyrenean scenery are:
The highest waterfall is Gavarnie, 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. The main passes of note are:
Because of the lack of low passes a number of tunnels have been created, beneath the passes at Somport, Envalira, and Puymorens and new routes in the center of the range at Bielsa and Vielha.
A notable visual feature of this mountain range is La Brèche de Roland, a gap in the ridge line, whichaccording to legendwas created by Roland.
.

Natural resources

The metallic ores of the Pyrenees are not in general of much importance now, though there were iron mines at several locations in Andorra, as well as at Vicdessos in Ariège, and 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 near the commune of Luzenac is one of the greatest sources of talc in Europe.
Mineral springs are abundant and remarkable, and especially noteworthy are the hot springs. The hot springs, among which those of Les Escaldes in Andorra, Panticosa and Lles in Spain, Ax-les-Thermes, Bagnères-de-Luchon and Eaux-Chaudes in France may be mentioned, are sulfurous and mostly situated high, near the contact of the granite with the stratified rocks. The lower springs, such as those of Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Rennes-les-Bains, and Campagne-sur-Aude, are mostly selenitic and not hot.

Climate

The amount of 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 left dry over the eastern Pyrenees. The winter average temperature is.
Sections of the mountain range vary in more than one respect. There are some glaciers in the western and snowy central Pyrenees, but there are no glaciers in the eastern Pyrenees because there is insufficient snowfall to cause their development. 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 rather 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 substantial evidence of a much wider expanse of glaciation during the glacial periods. The best evidence of this is in the valley of Argeles Gazost, between Lourdes and Gavarnie, in the département of Hautes-Pyrénées.
The annual snow-line varies in different parts of the Pyrenees from about above sea level. In average the seasonal snow is observed at least 50% of the time above between December and April.

Flora and fauna

Flora

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 as one moves eastwards. The eastern Pyrenees are peculiarly wild and barren, all the more since it is in this part of the chain that granitic masses prevail. Also moving from west to east, there is a change in the composition of the flora, with the change becoming most evident as one passes the centre of the mountain chain from which point the Corbières Massif stretch north-eastwards towards the central plateau of France. Though the difference in latitude is only about 1°, in the west the flora resembles that of central Europe while in the east it is distinctly Mediterranean in character. The Pyrenees are nearly 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, which grows only on a high alpine pass between the Val d'Eynes and Catalonia. Other examples include Arenaria montana, Bulbocodium vernum, and Ranunculus glacialis. The genus most abundantly represented in the range is that of the saxifrages, several species of which are endemic here.

Fauna

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; the only other desmans are confined to the rivers of the Caucasus in southern Russia. The Pyrenean euprocte, an endemic relative of the salamander, also lives in streams and lakes located at high altitudes. Among other peculiarities of Pyrenean fauna are blind insects in the caverns of Ariège, the principal genera of which are Anophthalmus and Adelops.
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 the Aspe Valley.

Protected areas

Principal nature reserves and national parks:
The Pyrenean region possesses a varied ethnology, folklore and history: see Andorra; Aragon; Ariège; Basque Country; Béarn; Catalonia; Navarre; Roussillon. For their history, see also Almogavars, Marca Hispanica.
The principal languages spoken in the area are Spanish, French, Aragonese, Catalan, and Basque.
Also spoken, to a lesser degree, is the Occitan language, consisting of the Gascon and Languedocien dialects in France and the Aranese dialect in the Aran Valley.
An important feature of rural life in the Pyrenees is 'transhumance', the moving of livestock from the farms in the valleys up to the higher grounds of the mountains for the summer. In this way the farming communities could keep larger herds than the lowland farms could support on their own. The principal animals moved were cows and sheep, but historically most members of farming families also moved to the higher pastures along with their animals, so they also took with them pigs, horses and chickens. Transhumance thus took the form of a mass biannual migration, moving uphill in May or June and returning to the farms in September or October. During the summer period, the families would live in basic stone cabins in the high mountains.
Nowadays, industrialisation and changing agriculture practices have diminished the custom. However, the importance of transhumance continues to be recognised through its celebration in popular festivals.

Scientific facilities

Pic du Midi Observatory

The Pic du Midi Observatory is an astronomical observatory located at 2877 meters on top of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre in the French Pyrenees. Construction of the observatory began in 1878 and the 8 metres dome was completed in 1908.
The observatory housed a powerful mechanical equatorial reflector which was used in 1909 to formally discredit the Martian canal theory. A 1.06-meter telescope was installed in 1963, funded by NASA and was used to take detailed photographs of the surface of the Moon in preparation for the Apollo missions. Other studies conducted in 1965 provided a detailed analysis of the composition of the atmospheres on Mars and Venus, this served as a basis for Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists to predict that these planets had no life.
Since 1980, the observatory has had a 2-metre telescope, which is the largest telescope in France. Overtaken by the giant telescopes built in recent decades, today the observatory is widely open to amateur astronomy.

Odeillo solar furnace

The Odeillo solar furnace is the world's largest solar furnace. It is situated in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, in south of France. Built between 1962 and 1968, it is 54 metres high and 48 metres wide, and includes 63 heliostats. The site was chosen because of the length and the quality of sunshine with direct light and the purity of its atmosphere.
This furnace serves as a science research site studying materials at very high temperatures. Temperatures above 3,500 °C can be obtained in a few seconds, in addition it provides rapid temperature changes and therefore allow studying the effect of thermal shocks.

Urban areas

No big cities are in the range itself. The largest urban area close to the Pyrenees is Toulouse, France with a population of 1,330,954 in its metropolitan area. On the Spanish side Pamplona, is the closest city with a population of 319,208 in its metropolitan area. Inside the Pyrenees the main towns are Andorra la Vella, Jaca in Spain and Lourdes and Foix in France.

Highest summits

The following is the complete list of the summits of the Pyrenees above 3,000 meters:
  1. Aneto
  2. Posets
  3. Monte Perdido
  4. Punta de Astorg
  5. Pico Maldito
  6. Espalda del Aneto
  7. Pico del Medio
  8. Espadas Peak
  9. Cilindro de Marboré
  10. Maladeta
  11. Vignemale
  12. Pico Coronas
  13. Pico Tempestades
  14. Clot de la Hount
  15. Soum de Ramond
  16. 1st Western Peak Maladeta
  17. Pic de Marboré
  18. Cerbillona
  19. Perdiguero
  20. 2nd Western Peak Maladeta
  21. Pic de Montferrat
  22. Pico Russell
  23. Pointe Chausenque
  24. Piton Carré
  25. Pic Long
  26. 3rd Western Peak Maladeta
  27. Pic Schrader
  28. Campbieil
  29. Pic de la cascade oriental
  30. Les Jumeaux Ravier
  31. Grand Tapou
  32. Pic Badet
  33. Balaïtous
  34. Pic du Taillon
  35. Pica d'Estats
  36. Punta del Sabre
  37. Diente de Alba
  38. Pic de la Munia
  39. Pointe de Literole
  40. Pic Verdaguer
  41. Pic du Milieu
  42. Pic des Gourgs Blancs
  43. Les Veterans
  44. Pico Pavots
  45. Pic de Royo
  46. Punta Ledormeur
  47. Pico Alba
  48. Pic des Crabioules
  49. Seil Dera Baquo
  50. Pic de Maupas
  51. Pic Lézat
  52. Western Crabioules
  53. Pico Brulle
  54. Pic de la cascade occidental
  55. Pic de Néouvielle
  56. Serre Mourene
  57. Pic de Troumouse
  58. Pico Posets
  59. Infierno central
  60. Pics d'Enfer
  61. Pico de Bardamina
  62. Pic de la Paul
  63. Pic de Montcalm
  64. Infierno oriental
  65. Pic Maou
  66. Infierno occidental
  67. Épaule du Marboré
  68. Pic du port de Sullo
  69. Frondella NE
  70. Grand pic d' Astazou
  71. Pico de Vallibierna
  72. Pico Marcos Feliu
  73. Pic des Spijeoles
  74. Pico Jean Arlaud
  75. Tuca de Culebras
  76. Grand Quayrat
  77. Pic Maubic
  78. Pico Gran Eriste
  79. Garmo negro
  80. Pic du Portillon
  81. Pico Argualas
  82. Baudrimont NW)
  83. Pic de Eristé sur
  84. Pic Camboue
  85. Trois Conseillers
  86. Pico Aragüells
  87. Pico Algas
  88. Turon de Néouvielle
  89. Pic de Batoua
  90. Gabietou occidental
  91. Comaloforno
  92. Petit Vignemale
  93. Gabietou oriental
  94. Pic de Bugarret
  95. South Besiberri Massif
  96. Pic de l'Abeille
  97. Baudrimont SE
  98. Pic Béraldi
  99. Pico de la Pez
  100. Pic de Lustou
  101. Pic Heid
  102. Pic de Crabounouse
  103. Pico de Clarabide
  104. Pico del puerto de la pez
  105. Dent d'Estibère male
  106. North Besiberri Massif
  107. Punta Alta Massif
  108. Petit Astazou
  109. Pic Ramougn
  110. Pico de Gias
  111. Tuc de Molières
  112. Tour du Marboré
  113. Pic Belloc
  114. Pic Forqueta
  115. Pic d'Estaragne
  116. Pico de Boum
  117. Casque du Marboré
  118. Arnales
  119. Grande Fache
  120. Pico Robiñera
  121. Pic de Saint Saud
  122. Middle Besiberri S
  123. Middle Besiberri N
  124. Pointe Célestin Passet
  125. Punta de las Olas
  126. Frondella SW

    Notable summits below 3,000 metres

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 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 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.
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

resorts in the Pyrenees include: