SwissTraveling.com

Four major European climates affect Switzerland. From the west, influenced by the North Atlantic Drift, come mild and moist air masses; dry and cold air arrives from the North Arctic areas; continental air from the east brings dry colder air in winter and warmer air in summer; and relatively moist and warm air flows northward [...]

Political Divisions Switzerland is a confederation of 23 states, called cantons, three of which are subdivided into half-cantons for administrative purposes. The cantons and half-cantons are as follows: Aargau; Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden (half-canton); Appenzell Inner-Rhoden (half-canton); Basel-Land (half-canton); Basel-Stadt (half-canton); Bern; Fribourg; Geneva (Genève); Glarus; Graubünden (Grisons); Jura; Lucerne (Luzern); Neuchâtel; Nidwalden (half-canton); Obwalden (half-canton); Sankt [...]

In pre-Roman times the territory now known as Switzerland was inhabited by the Helvetii in the west and the Rhaetians, a people believed to have been related to the Etruscans, in the east. Julius Caesar and the Romans conquered the region, which they named Helvetia, in the 1st century BC, and it became thoroughly Romanized. [...]

Swiss culture has contributed notably to literature, art, and music. It is an amalgam of the German, French, and Italian cultures embodied in the Swiss linguistic regions; however, it is separated from these parent cultures, for example, by Swiss dialects and cultural cross-pollination. From early times Switzerland has been exposed to many foreign influences, and [...]

Switzerland (French Suisse; German Schweiz; Italian Svizzera), federal republic in west central Europe, bounded on the north by France and Germany, on the east by Austria and Liechtenstein, on the south by Italy, and on the west by France. The country has an area of 41,288 sq km (15,941 sq mi). Its largest city is [...]