Mont Cenis

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For the Italian commune, see Moncenisio (commune).

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Col du Mont Cenis
The sign marking the Pass.
Elevation	2083m.
Location	France
Range	Graian Alps/Cottian Alps
Coordinates	45°15′N, 6°57′E
Traversed by	Route nationale 6

Reservoir at the pass

Mont Cenis (Italian: Moncenisio) is a massif and pass (el. 2081 m / 6827 ft) in Savoy in France which forms the limit between the Cottian and Graian Alps.

A road was built across it between 1803 and 1810 by Napoleon, while a light railway (named after its inventor, Mr. Fell, and worked by English engine-drivers) was opened alongside the road in 1868, but was destroyed in 1871, on the opening of the Mont Cenis Tunnel.

This tunnel (highest point 1295 m / 4249 ft) is really 27.4 km 17 miles west of the pass, below the Col de Fréjus. From Chambéry the line runs up the Isère valley, but soon bears through that of the Arc or the Maurienne past St Jean de Maurienne to Modane (98.2km / 61 mi from Chambéry). The tunnel is 13 km in length, and leads to Bardonecchia, some way below which, at Oulx the line joins the road from the Col de Montgenèvre.

Thence the valley of the Dora Riparia is followed to Turin (103.8 km / 64.5 mi from Modane). The carriage road mounts the Arc valley for 25.7 km / 16 mi from Modane to Lanslebourg, whence it is 12.9 km / 8 mi to the hospice, a little way beyond the summit of the pass. The descent lies through the Cenis valley to Susa (49.9 km / 37 mi from Modane) where the road joins the railway.

To the south-west of the Mont Cenis is the Little Mont Cenis (2184.2 m / 7166 ft) which leads from the summit plateau (in Italy) of the main pass to the Etache valley on the French slope and so to Bramans in the Arc valley. This pass was crossed in 1689 by the Vaudois, and by some authors is believed to have been Hannibal's Pass.

[edit] History

Being a pass in the Alps, the Mont Cenis was used several times in history. One example is the descent of Constantine I to Italy, to fight against Maxentius.