Valais (canton)

Valais (canton)

The Valais canton is a wide valley floor is guarded by forty five peaks that soar over four thousand meters. In a land of extremes where the sun shines on the vineyards while the glaciers remain frozen above. The landscape is dominated by the iconic shape of the **Matterhorn** and the **Aletsch** glacier, the longest ice flow in the Alps. Roads climb the steep valley walls to reach remote villages where the wooden houses are built on stone stilts. You find yourself in a region of **Suonen**, ancient high altitude irrigation channels that have carried water to the dry fields for centuries. The history of mountain guides is found in the old hotels of Zermatt and Saas Fee. This is a province of vertical life. People will be paragliding over the valley and hikers explore the high alpine trails. The vibe is one of adventure and raw natural beauty. Valais is an empire of ice and wine that offers a spectacular journey through the highest terrain in the country.

Valais (canton) highlights

Part of these road trips

Follow the routes that cross this destination

The Scenic Route
The Heritage Drive
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History of Valais (canton)

Valais is a canton of vertical extremes where the history was shaped by the struggle for water. For over 1,000 years the people of this sunny valley built the Bisses which are miraculous irrigation channels that cling to the faces of sheer cliffs to bring glacial meltwater to the dry vineyards below. These channels are a testament to the sheer will of the local people to survive in a landscape of rock and ice. This created a culture of isolated village republics. The higher reaches of the canton were the final frontier of the Alps. In the Middle Ages the **Walser** people migrated across the high glaciers to settle in the most remote valleys building their iconic houses on stone stilts to protect their grain. For centuries the history of places like Zermatt was one of total isolation until the 19th century when the **Golden Age of Alpinism** brought British explorers to conquer the Matterhorn. This changed the region into a famous mountain destination. The modern history of the region is defined by its mastery of the power of the giants. The construction of the **Grande Dixence** which is the highest gravity dam in the world showed that the people of the valley could harness the massive power of the glaciers to light up the country. The history of the canton is a story of the vine and the glacier where people managed to grow some of the world finest wines in the shadow of mountain peaks.
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