The Cirque de Saint-Même is a natural amphitheater located in the east end of the

massif de la Chartreuse The Chartreuse Mountains ( ) are a mountain range in southeastern France, stretching from the city of Grenoble in the south to the Lac du Bourget in the north. They are part of the French Prealps, which continue as the Bauges to the north and t ...

in the French departments of

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...

(north) and the

Isère Isère ( , ; ; , ) is a landlocked Departments of France, department in the southeastern French Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère (river), Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.

(south) districts separated by the

Guiers Vif The Guiers Vif (, literally ''live Guiers'') is a river in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in eastern France. It is located in the Parc Naturel Régional de la Chartreuse, Regional Natural Park of Chartreuse, on the border between the municipalities of Sain ...

, river through the natural circus.

Information

Located at 900 m above sea level in the districts of Saint-Pierre d'Entremont, the circus is also part of the nature reserve Hauts de Chartreuse . It is characterized by large layers of urgoniennes rocks, where four

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s (from the top to the bottom: Cascade des Sources, Grande cascade, Cascade isolée, Pisse du Guiers) are dominated by

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

cliffs of an elevation of 500 meters. The water comes from

underground sources, historical border between the

Dauphiné The Dauphiné ( , , ; or ; or ), formerly known in English as Dauphiny, is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was ...

and the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica among other names, was a State (polity), country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century, and from 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of ...

, and now this is the limit between the two departments of

and

.Two important caves are present in the circus. The cave of

, downstream exit of the Malissard network, and ''the cave of Mort-Rû'' located further north at 1,130 m above sea level. The latter has a development of 8,000 m leading to a vertical drop of 331 m. An upper entrance was opened by the cavers, ''the Cave of the Masks'', allowing a crossing of 252 m of elevation for 690 m of development. File:Résurgence du Guiers Vif.jpg, Cascade des sources (résurgence du Guiers) File:Grande Cascade (Saint-Même).JPG, Grande Cascade File:Cascade cirque de st meme.JPG, Cascade Isolée File:Pisse du Guiers (Saint-Même).JPG, Pisse du Guiers File:Entrée de la grotte du Guiers Vif.jpg, Entrance of cave of Guiers Vif Landforms of Savoie Landforms of Isère Rock formations of France {{AuvergneRhôneAlpes-geo-stub