Aare Gorge

The Aare Gorge is a section of the river Aare that carves through a limestone ridge near the town of Meiringen, in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The gorge is an indirect product of glaciation; 10,000 years ago, just as the Ice Age was coming to an end, torrential runoff water from melting glaciers eroded a deep, narrow chasm through the limestone barrier. Although barely 2 kilometres long, this passage is bordered by sheer cliffs up to 50 m high on either side. The gorge varies in width from some 30 metres at its widest to just 1 metre at its narrowest.The gorge is a popular tourist attraction, many visitors attracted by the nearby Reichenbach Falls, which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle selected as the setting for Sherlock Holmes' murder by Professor Moriarty.

Permission to build walking paths along the Gorge was granted in 1887, and the walkway has been open to the public since 1889.