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Switzerland

The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a small landlocked federal state in central Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. The country has a strong tradition of political and military neutrality, but also of international co-operation, as it is home to many international organisations.

Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin version of the official name, avoids choosing one of the four official languages. Its abbreviation, CH, is, for example, used as Internet TLD.

Switzerland geography

With an area of 41.000 square kilometers, Switzerland is a small country. The population is around 7.4 million, resulting in a population density of 184/km² (roughly comparable to e.g. the U. S. state of Maryland).

The Swiss landscape is characterised by the Alps, a high mountain range running across the central-south of the country. Amongst the high peaks of the Swiss Alps, the highest of which is the Dufour Peak at 4,634 m, are found countless valleys, some with glaciers. From these the headwaters of several major European rivers such as the Rhine, the Rhône, the Inn, the Aare or the Ticino, flow down into lakes such as Lake Geneva, Lake Zürich, Lake Neuchâtel, and Lake Constance and farther down.

Switzerland is made up of the Swiss Alps, Mitteland, and Jurah.

The northern, more populous part of the country is more open, but can still be fairly mountainous such as with the Jura Mountains, a smaller range in the northwest. The Swiss climate is generally temperate, but it can vary greatly locally, from the harsh conditions on the high mountains to the pleasant Mediterranean climate at Switzerland's southern tip.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Switzerland".