Belfort Gap
The Belfort Gap (French: Trouée de Belfort) or Burgundian Gate (German: Burgundische Pforte) is a plateau located between the northern rim of the Jura Mountains and the southernmost part of the Vosges in France. It marks the divide between the drainage basins of the Rhine River in the east and that of the Rhône (Doubs and Saône) in the west, part of the European Watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Geography
Its elevation varies between 345 m (1,132 ft) at its lowest and a little more than 400 m (1,300 ft). The roughly 40 km (25 mi) wide terrain corridor connects the French département of Haut-Rhin, south of the région Alsace and the Territoire de Belfort, north of the région Franche-Comté. The passage allows warm Mediterranean flows to advect northeastwards into the Upper Rhine Plain and the Middle Rhine Valley.
Lines of communication that traverse the Belfort Gap include the French Route nationale 83 and the A36 autoroute, the railway line from Paris to Basel and the planned LGV Rhin-Rhône high-speed railway, as well as the Rhône-Rhine Canal.
Belfort
Belfort [French pronunciation: [bɛl.fɔʁ]] (German: Beffert) is a city in northeastern France in the Franche-Comté région, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg. It is the biggest town and the administrative town of the Territoire de Belfort département in the Franche-Comté region. Belfort is 400 km (249 mi) from Paris, 141 km (88 mi) from Strasbourg, 290 km (180 mi) from Lyon and 150 km (93 mi) from Zürich. The residents of the city are called ‘’Belfortains’’. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap (Trouée de Belfort) or Burgundian Gate (Porte de Bourgogne). The city of Belfort has 50,199 inhabitants. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Belfort forms the largest agglomeration (metropolitan area) in Franche-Comté region with an urban population of 308,601 inhabitants.
History
Belfort's strategic location, in a natural gap between the Vosges and the Jura, on a route linking the Rhine and the Rhône, has attracted human settlement and made it a target for armies.
Belfort (disambiguation)
Belfort is a town and commune in France.
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