 | The canton of Berne is the second largest of all Swiss cantons. It borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south lies the Valais. East of the canton of Berne lie the cantons of Uri, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Lucerne and Aargau.
The canton of Berne is mainly drained by the River Aar and its tributaries. The area of the canton is commonly divided into three areas. The Bernese Oberland (German: Berner Oberland) lies in the south of the canton and is part of the Alps (Bernese Alps and Urner Alps). The highest mountain in the Bernese Oberland is the Finsteraarhorn (4,274 m; 14,022 ft). The famous hiking and ski resorts in the eastern Oberland around Interlaken and the Jungfrau (4,158 m) are located within this area, such as car-free Wengen and Mürren, and Gimmelwald and Grindelwald. Further east are the Aareschlucht and the town of Meiringen, famous for the fateful scene of Sherlock Holmes's 'death' at the hands of Professor Moriarty on the nearby Reichenbach Falls. In the Western Bernese Oberland there are many other resorts and small villages catering to visitors who prefer greater isolation. These are accessed from the large scenic lake town of Thun, and the most notable of them are Kandersteg and the Oeschinensee, as well as Kiental and Adelboden. Going further west up the even more secluded Simmental river valleys, one reaches Zweisimmen, Lenk, Gstaad, and Saanen. |