Monte San Giorgio

Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio (right), among Lake Lugano and Monte Generoso (left, background)
Highest point
Elevation1,097 m (3,599 ft)
Prominence758 m (2,487 ft)[1]
Coordinates45°54′49″N 8°56′59″E / 45.91361°N 8.94972°E / 45.91361; 8.94972
Geography
Monte San Giorgio is located in Canton of Ticino
Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio
Location in Switzerland
Monte San Giorgio is located in Switzerland
Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio (Switzerland)
Monte San Giorgio is located in Lombardy
Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio (Lombardy)
Monte San Giorgio is located in Italy
Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio
Monte San Giorgio (Italy)
LocationTicino, Switzerland
Parent rangeLugano Prealps
Topo mapSwisstopo 1373 Mendrisio
Climbing
Easiest routeTrail
Official nameMonte San Giorgio
TypeNatural
Criteriaviii
Designated2003 (27th session)
Reference no.1090
RegionEurope and North America
Extensions2010

Monte San Giorgio is a Swiss mountain and UNESCO World Heritage Site near the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is part of the Lugano Prealps, overlooking Lake Lugano in the Swiss Canton of Ticino.

Monte San Giorgio is a wooded mountain, rising to 1,097 m (3,600 feet) above sea level. It has a roughly pyramidal shape, with a steep north edge sloping towards Lake Lugano and a more shallow South Slope extending towards the Po Plain. The eastern (Swiss) side of the mountain, between the municipalities of Brusino Arsizio, Riva San Vitale, and Meride, was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2003. This was in recognition of its cultural, biological, and especially paleontological significance. The site is renowned for its fossil content, one of the best known records of marine life in the Middle Triassic period.[2][3][4] The Italian region west of Poncione d'Arzo (Porto Ceresio) was added as an extension to the World Heritage Site in 2010.[5]

  1. ^ Swisstopo map
  2. ^ Monte San Giorgio – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  3. ^ "Nomination of Monte San Giorgio for inclusion in the World Heritage List" (PDF). UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 2003.
  4. ^ Rieppel, Olivier (2019). Mesozoic Sea Dragons: Triassic Marine Life from the Ancient Tropical Lagoon of Monte San Giorgio. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-04013-8.
  5. ^ "Nomination of Monte San Giorgio (Italian extension of Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland, inscribed in 2003) for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List" (PDF). UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 2010.