The Sphinx Observatory is an astronomical

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

located above the

Jungfraujoch The Jungfraujoch (German language, German: lit. "maiden saddle") is a Saddle (landform), saddle connecting two major Four-thousander, 4000ers of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It lies at an elevation of above sea level and is dir ...

in Switzerland. It is named after the ''Sphinx'', a rocky summit on which it is located. At above mean sea level, it is one of the highest observatories in the world. Accessible to the public, it is also the second highest observation deck in Switzerland. The mountain top has been tunneled to fit an elevator which ascends to the observatory from the Jungfraujoch railway station, the highest such train station in Europe. The building is located on the

Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

side of the border, only a few metres from the canton of

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, although it is accessed via the

Jungfrau Railway The Jungfrau Railway (, , JB) is a mountain rack railway in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, connecting Kleine Scheidegg in the Bernese Oberland to the Jungfraujoch, across the Valais border. It is the highest railway in Switzerland and Europe, ru ...

from the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

. The open viewing deck accessible to the public is adjacent to the observatory. It offers views of the Jungfrau,

Mönch The Mönch (, German: "monk") at is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau, it forms a highly recognisable group of mountains, visible from far away. The Mönch lies on the border between the ...

, and

Eiger The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends ...

peaks, all within a few kilometers.

Science

The scientific part of the Sphinx observatory includes two large laboratories, a weather observation station, a workshop, two terraces for scientific experiments, and an astronomical as well as a meteorological cupola. The astronomical cupola is equipped with a 76 cm

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

with Cassegrain and Coudé focus. The observatory plays an important role in a range of long-term experiments; it serves as a solar

spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure Spectrum, spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomeno ...

for the Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium founded in 1817 and based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French (language), French. History The university was foun ...

, Belgium, and plays a key role in a

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...

experiment conducted by the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

in Switzerland. In 1949,

nuclear emulsion A nuclear emulsion plate is a type of particle detector first used in nuclear and particle physics experiments in the early decades of the 20th century. https://cds.cern.ch/record/1728791/files/vol6-issue5-p083-e.pdf''The Study of Elementary Partic ...

plates exposed to

cosmic rays Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar ...

in the observatory provided first precise evidence for the existence of the charged K-meson.

In popular media

The observatory can be seen in the movies '' The Grand Budapest Hotel'', '' The Hero: Love Story of a Spy'' and '' Krrish 3''. It was visited in season 22 of the American reality competition series ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality competition franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. ''The Amazing Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselv ...

'' during their visit to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in Leg 8. It also appears in the 2016

videogame A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, most ...

'' Steep'' and as the setting for a conference called The Meadows in the final episode of '' The Pentaverate''. A 2019-2020 Korean Drama, " Crash Landing on You" has the lead couple visit the Observatory in episode 16. The observatory served as heavy inspiration for one that appears in 2025

Abiotic Factor. It is depicted under the name "Voussoir Facility", and is owned and operated by Garrick Advanced Technology Enterprises. The observatory is vital to the progression of the story as it contains the first instances of an item that must be collected by the player to advance to the next level of the game.

Gallery

File:Eiger Mönch Jungfrau 01.jpg, The

(left),

(middle) and Jungfrau (right) massif. The observatory is located on the saddle between the Mönch and Jungfrau File:Moench Jungfrau.jpg, The

(left) and the Jungfrau (right). The Sphinx observatory can be seen in the middle, on the saddle between the two summits. File:Jungfreijoch.jpg Guggigletscher - 2023-07-19 - 10-18-40.jpg, The ''Guggigletscher'' seen from the platform of the observatory

References

External links

High Altitude Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat (HFSJG)
Astronomical observatories in Switzerland Buildings and structures in Valais Observation decks {{Switzerland-struct-stub

Science

In popular media

Gallery

See also

References

External links