Col de Clapier or Col du Clapier ( French ''Col Clapier'' or ''Col de Savine'', Italian ''Colle Clapier'') 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 ...

over the mountain

massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

Mont Cenis in the Cottian Alps and Graian Alps between

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

in France and

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

in Italy. The bridle path goes from Bramans (1220 m) to Susa (503 m). There is no firm road.

Archaeology

The Col de Clapier is considered a possible route for

Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...

's famous passage through the Alps on his journey from the Rhone (in French, ''Rhône'') river valley to Italy.''Hannibal's War: A Military History of the Second Punic War'', p. 46, John Francis Lazenby University of Oklahoma Press, 1998 From 2004 to 2008, Patrick Hunt, a scholar from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, has led numerous archaeological expeditions through the Col de Clapier to research the possibility and the likelihood of

using the pass to traverse the Alps with his army. Hunt's research has involved topographical surveys, soil and rock sampling, exploration of the Col de Clapier's various modern and historic routes, and comparisons of

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

's and

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

's accounts of Hannibal's passage to the regional and local geography. Se
''Hannibal in the Alps: Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project 1994-2006''
In 1959, it was the planned route of the British Alpine Hannibal Expedition, but rockfall made the expedition backtrack and take their elephant into Susa via the Col du Mont Cenis.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Map Bramans – Col de Clapier – Susa
Mountain passes of the Alps Mountain passes of Piedmont France–Italy border crossings Mountain passes of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Archaeology

See also

References

External links