Zurich,Lucerne&Rhine Waterfalls Trip

ZURICH

The city of Zurich is a global center of banking and finance and is located at the northern end of Lake Zurich in the north of Switzerland. The picturesque streets of the old town on both sides of the Limmat are evidence of pre-medieval city history. Waterfront promenades like the Limmatquai follow the river to the town hall from the 17th century.

Lucerne

Is a town, municipality and capital of the Swiss canton of the same name. It also forms the constituency Lucerne-city. The city of Lucerne is the social and cultural center of Central Switzerland. Among other things, it is the seat of the University of Lucerne and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences.

Rhine Waterfalls

The Rhine Falls were formed in the last ice age, approximately 14,000 to 17,000 years ago, by erosion-resistant rocks narrowing the riverbed. The first glacial advances created today’s landforms approximately 500,000 years ago. Up to the end of the Wolstonian Stage approximately 132,000 years ago, the Rhine flowed westwards from Schaffhausen past Klettgau. This earlier riverbed later filled up with gravel.

About 132,000 years ago the course of the river changed southwards at Schaffhausen and formed a new channel, which also filled up with gravel. Part of the Rhine today includes this ancient riverbed.

During the Würm glaciation, the Rhine was pushed far to the south to its present course, over a hard Late Jurassic limestone bed. As the river flowed over both the hard limestone and the easily eroded gravel from previous glaciations, the current waterfall formed about 14,000 to 17,000 years ago. The Rheinfallfelsen, a large rock, is the remnant of the original limestone cliff flanking the former channel. The rock has eroded very little over the years because relatively little sediment comes down the Rhine from Lake Constance.