At the Jungfraujoch, Bernese Alps, canton of Bern, Switzerland

 "The world stands out on either side

No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky --
No higher than the soul is high."
-- a few lines from Renascence (by Edna St. Vincent Millay)
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(in Switzerland, at the "Top of Europe") The Jungfraujoch (German: "maiden saddle") is a saddle connecting two major peaks of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It lies at an elevation of 3,463 meters above sea level and is overlooked by the rocky prominence of the Sphinx. The Jungfraujoch is a glacier saddle, on the upper reaches of the Aletsch Glacier, and part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, situated on the boundary between the Swiss cantons of Bern and Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch. Here, icy air sweeps over your face, snow crunches underfoot, and the panorama almost takes your breath away.

+ The name Jungfrau ("'maiden," or" virgin"), refers to the highest mountain overlooking the Jungfraujoch. Since 1912, the Jungfraujoch has been accessible to tourists by the Jungfrau line, a railway from Interlaken and Kleine Scheidegg, running partly underground via a tunnel through the Eiger and Mönch. The railway station, at an elevation of 3,454 meters, is the highest in Europe. It lies east of the saddle, below the Sphinx station, and is connected to the Top of Europe building, which includes several panoramic restaurants, shops, exhibitions, and a post office. Several tunnels lead outside, where secured hiking trails on the crevassed glacier can be followed, in particular to the Mönchsjoch Hut. (The normal route to the Jungfrau and Mönch starts from there.)

+ In the Swiss and Austro-Bavarian German languages, Joch ("yoke") is a term for a ridge between two higher peaks. The name Jungfrau ('maiden, virgin'), which refers to the highest mountain overlooking the Jungfraujoch, is said to have been derived from the name Jungfrauenberg given to Wengernalp, so named for the nuns of Interlaken Monastery, its historical owner. However, the "virgin" peak was heavily romanticized as a "goddess" or "priestess" only in late 18th- to 19th-century Romanticism.

+ From the south, the Jungfraujoch can be relatively easily accessed by mountaineers in two days from the region of Fiesch, via the Konkordia Hut. The north side (canton of Bern) is almost vertical with a difference of height of nearly 3,000 meters from the bottom of the valley at Interlaken, with no easy natural access. For those reasons, the only easy and quick access to the Jungfraujoch is through the tunnel of the Jungfrau Railway, accessed via Kleine Scheidegg on the north side -- the railway pass between Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald.

+ Administrativelly, the Jungfraujoch is split between the territories of the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen and Fieschertal. Nearly all built infrastructure, including the Jungfraujoch railway station, the Top of Europe complex, and the Sphinx Observatory, are on the Valais side of the border, in Fieschertal.