Photos

This photo was taken from inside a gondola that crosses the Mer de Glace glacier.

Mont Blanc (French for white mountain) or Monte Bianco (Italian, same meaning), also known as "La Dame Blanche" (French, the white lady) is a mountain in the Alps. With its 4,810 m (15,781 ft) summit, it is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence.

The mountain lies between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Haute-Savoie, France. The location of the summit itself is a subject of controversy between the two countries, as each tends to place it within its own boundaries on maps. It is claimed by Italian sources that at a convention between France and Kingdom of Sardinia, in Turin (1861), the border was fixed on the highest point of Mont Blanc, the south east ridge to Monte Bianco di Courmayeur wholly within Italy, and that this was the last official definition of this border. But the maps created by the French national mapping agency claim that the summit is exclusively French territory. Lately, at the end of his studies of many different maps and with the assistance of the Istituto Cartografico dell’Esercito, Antonio Napolitano, the Italian leader of a mixed commission, claimed exclusive Italian ownership of the summit.

The two most famous towns near Mont Blanc are Courmayeur, in Aosta Valley, Italy, and Chamonix, in Haute-Savoie, France - the site of the first Winter Olympics. From Chamonix a cable car ascends the mountain side.

Begun in 1957 and completed in 1965, the 11.6 km (7¼ mi) Mont Blanc Tunnel runs beneath the mountain between these two countries and is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes.

The Mont Blanc Massif is popular for mountaineering, hiking, skiing and snowboarding.