Arve Arve The river Arve () flows for approximately 100 km (62 miles) through France, in the "département" of Haute-Savoie, and (for a few kilometers) in Switzerland. It is a left tributary of the Rhône. Rising in the northern side of the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps, close to the Swiss border, it receives water from the many glaciers of the Chamonix valley (mainly the Mer de Glace) before flowing north-west into the Rhône on the west side of Geneva, where its much higher level of silt brings forth a striking contrast between the two rivers. The Arve flows through
Swiss Alps European explorers. Swiss Alps The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps (, , , ), represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions. The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called "Central Alps". While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared