The Belchen System refers to five mountains with the name ''Belchen'' around the tripoint of Germany, France and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

that may have been used by the Celts as a

solar calendar A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the season or almost equivalently the apparent position of the Sun relative to the stars. The Gregorian calendar, widely accepted as a standard in the world, is an example of a solar calendar. T ...

. The term is an extension of the Belchen Triangle. The mountains are: * '' Belchen'', or Black Forest Belchen * '' Belchenflue'', or Swiss Belchen * ''

Ballon d'Alsace The Ballon d'Alsace german: Elsässer Belchen (el. 1247 m.), sometimes also called the Alsatian Belchen to distinguish it from other mountains named " Belchen" is a mountain at the border of Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche-Comté. From its top, v ...

'', or Alsatian Belchen * '' Grand Ballon'', or Great Belchen * '' Petit Ballon'', or Little Belchen

Geographical description

The heart of the Belchen System is the southernmost mountain of the Vosges, the ''

'' (''Elsässer Belchen'' or Alsatian Belchen, 1,247 metres). Seventy three kilometres due east is the

Black Forest Belchen The Belchen, , or Black Forest Belchen (german: Schwarzwälder Belchen) is the fourth-highest summit of the Black Forest after Feldberg, Seebuck and Herzogenhorn. The municipalities of Münstertal, Schönenberg and Kleines Wiesental meet on t ...

(''Schwarzwälder Belchen'', 1,414 metres), which is only 167 metres higher and over which the sun rises at the equinoxes, i.e. at the beginning of spring and autumn, as seen from Grand Ballon. Conversely, the sun sets over the Alsatian Belchen on these days when seen from the Black Forest Belchen. Viewed from the Alsatian Belchen at the time of the

summer solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...

, the sun rises over '' Petit Ballon'' (''Kleiner Belchen'' or Little Belchen, 1,272 metres), 27 kilometres away to the northeast. At the winter solstice it rises over the '' Belchenflue'' (''Schweizer Belchen'' or Swiss Belchen, 1,099 metres), 88 kilometres to the southeast. Thus from the Alsatian Belchen the start of all four astronomical seasons is defined. The region of the Belchen System is known today as the Upper Rhine, the ''Regio Basiliensis'', the ''Dreiland'' or ''RegioTriRhena''. File:Sommetduballond'alsace.jpg, Alsace Belchen File:Petit Ballon.JPG, Little Belchen File:Grand Ballon 2013.JPG, Great Belchen File:Belchen_1.JPG, Black Forest Belchen File:Belchen-Fluh.jpg, Swiss Belchen

References

* Walter Eichin, Andreas Bohnert: ''Belchensystem'', in ''Das Markgräfler Land'', 1985, Issue 2, pp. 176ff. ** ''Astronomisch-kalendarisches Ortungssystem'', in ''Jurablätter'', 5 May 1988 * Rolf d’Aujourd’hui: ''Das Belchensystem'', Basler Zeitung, 18 June 1992

External links

* Rolf d’Aujourd’hui:
Belchen
', Historic Lexicon of Switzerland, retrieved 20 May 2013 * Karl Rammstein
The Belchen Legend
13. Juni 2004, retrieved 20 May 2013 * Hannes Hanggi
''Ich will das System verankern''
(pdf; 844 kB), Basler Zeitung, 8 December 2007, retrieved 20 May 2013 * Gianni Mazzucchelli
Der Sonnenkalender von Rothenfluh - Das Belchen-System
(pdf; 9.5 MB), retrieved 20 May 2013

guajara.com, retrieved 20 May 2013
regbas.ch: Belchen Triangle explained, with illustration
* Reference a
archaeobasel.ch: ''Projekt Archäo-Geometrie – Belchendreieck''
(PDF; 160 kB); im Jahresbericht der Archäologischen Bodenforschung des Kantons Basel-Stadt 1993, incl. bibliography
Das magische Dreieck

SRF SRF may refer to: Organisations: * Sudan Revolutionary Front, alliance of armed groups formed in 2011 * Syria Revolutionaries Front, formed in December 2013 * Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, German-language broadcaster in Switzerland * SRF Limite ...

broadcast from the series
Mysterious Switzerland
{{Authority control Regions of Europe Upper Rhine Archaeoastronomy

Geographical description

See also

References

External links