Lauterbrunnen lies at the bottom of a U-shaped valley that extends south and then south-westwards from the village to meet the Lauterbrunnen Wall. The Lauterbrunnen Valley ("Lauterbrunnental") is one of the deepest in the Alpine chain when compared with the height of the mountains that rise directly on either side. It is a true cleft, rarely more than one kilometer in width, between limestone precipices, sometimes quite perpendicular, everywhere of extreme steepness. In places the cliff walls are up to high. It is to this form of the valley that it owes the numerous waterfalls from which it derives its name. The streams descending from the adjoining mountains, on reaching the verge of the rocky walls of the valley, form cascades so high that they are almost lost in spray before they reach the level of the valley. The most famous of these is Staubbach Falls, less than one kilometer from the village of Lauterbrunnen. The high Staubbach is the highest free falling waterfall in Switzerland. Also near Lauterbrunnen is the highest waterfall in Switzerland, the Mürrenbach Fall.