ABSTRACT
On a relief map, Basel would seem to be destined to be a really great city. It lies at the head of the Rhine plain on the great right-angle bend of the river where the natural lowland routeways converge. The Burgundian Gate lies to the southwest, the Rhine plain to the north, and the upper Rhine valley to the east. To the south there are short valleys which are now used by railways, and tunnels cut through the narrow belt of the Jura to Zurich, Leizen-Gotthard and Bern. Basel is often referred to as the “golden gate to Switzerland”. The Vosges, the Black Forest, and the Swiss Jura frame the lowland around the city. The Sundgau lies between the Vosges and the outliers of the Jura. The river Birs which flows through the gorges of the Jura, joins the Rhine above Basel. The Wiese, a stream flowing from the Black Forest, empties into the Rhine on the right bank below the city. The dying ends of the Black Forest approach the Rhine as low hill country in the vicinity of Basel.
