Belchenflue Pass (el. 1055 m.) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

to use only by hikers in the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

between the

cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, th ...

Basel-Country Canton of Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country, informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet (; ; ; ; ), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital city is Liestal. It is traditional ...

and

Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...

. Nearestby access by car is on the Chilchzimmersattel. Actually the pass does not have a distinct name. It is the signpost just nearby the dead-end hiking trail that has ''Belchenflue'' written on. The mountain is also called ''Bölchen'' by locals. The name came originally from

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

from the sun god

Belenus Belenus (Gaulish: ''Belenos'', ''Belinos'') is an ancient Celtic healing god. The cult of Belenus stretched from the Italian Peninsula to the British Isles, with a main sanctuary located at Aquileia, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast. Through ...

. The namegiving nearby peak (el. 1099 m.) was an important marker for the tribal calendar establishing the seasons. Along with the peak of the same name in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

( Alsatian Belchen) and

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

( Black Forest Belchen), it allowed the establishment of the winter and summer

solstice A solstice is the time when the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly sun path, excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around 20–22 June and 20–22 December. In many countries ...

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As is the case with much of the Jura range, the cliffs are formed of hard oolithic limestone, which has been exposed as the softer stone above it has eroded. The pass forms the divide between the watershed of the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

in the south and the

Ergolz The Ergolz is the main river in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland. It rises on Mount Geisflue in the Faltenjura mountains in the upper region of Basel-Landschaft, on the border with Aargau and Solothurn, and joins the Rhine at Augst ...

in the north. Both flow into the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. To the east are the Challhöchi and Unterer Hauenstein passes.

External links

Belchendreieck
Mountain passes of Switzerland Mountain passes of the Jura Mountain passes of the canton of Solothurn Mountain passes of Basel-Landschaft Basel-Landschaft–Solothurn border {{Solothurn-geo-stub

See also

External links