Topography
Even though the Swiss Plateau forms a basin, it is by no means a flat territory, but depending on the region, it has a manifold structure. Important elements are the two big lakes, Lake Geneva and Lake Constance that delimit the Swiss Plateau in the southwest and the northeast. The western plateau is stamped by the Gros-de-Vaud plateau (up to 600 meters AMSL) and the Jorat molasse hills (up to 900 meters AMSL) but sometimes intersected by deep valleys. Only near the Jura there is an almost continuous dip consisting of the Venoge and the Orbe valleys which are separated by the Mormont hill, the main watershed between Rhône and Rhine, at only 500 m AMSL. The Seeland ('lake land'), characterized by the Murten, Neuchâtel and Biel lakes, represents the biggest plain of the Swiss Plateau, though it is also irrupted by isolated molasse ranges. In the east, it is neighboured by various hill countries the height of which decreases to the north. Another major plain is the Wasseramt where the Emme river runs. In a broad valley alongside the Jura, the Aar collects all the rivers that come down from the Alps.
The central Swiss Plateau is characterised by a number of ranges and broad valleys, some of them with lakes, that run northwest. The last of them is the Albis range, which together with the Heitersberg range forms a bar from the Alps to the Jura that the major transportations bypass only in a few places, mostly in tunnels.
The eastern Swiss Plateau is structured by the valleys of the Limmat (including lake Zurich), the Glatt, the Töss and the Thur. Between them there are hill countries, in the canton of Thurgau also the broad molasse ranges of Seerücken and Ottenberg.
Two hill countries get out of line of the mentioned landscapes: The Napf region (with 1408 me AMSL the highest point of the Swiss Plateau) and the Töss region (up to 1300 meters AMSL), both of them the remains of Tertiary conglomerate sediment fans. Since they were not glaciated, they have only been eroded by water, resulting in a dense net of deep, narrow valleys.
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