Bavarian Alps

The Bavarian Alps are a collective mountain country within the Northern Limestone Alps. In the wider sense they include the parts of the Eastern Alps lying in Bavaria, while narrower usage restricts the name to ranges between the Lech and Saalach. The landscape therefore has no single uniform edge: its identity changes with the geological and geographical convention being followed. Steep limestone massifs rise above valley floors, and the highest summit is the Zugspitze in the Wetterstein range, distinguished by its height and two small glaciers.

The last ice age left a visible inheritance. Cirques, lakes and U-shaped valleys were cut by glaciers, while meltwater and moraines helped form the gently rolling Alpine foreland with its lakes and bogs. These mountains were also worked land. Pollen and charcoal studies record human disturbance from the Neolithic, with clearer traces of mountain pasture by about 750 BC. Burning may have opened ground for grazing, although scientists cannot always separate pasture from hunting or other activity. For travellers, the valleys offered passages between Bavaria and the Alps; above them, seasonal use of meadows coexisted with the hard boundaries of rock, snow and forest.