vorarlberg

Vorarlberg

Bundesland (federal state), far western Austria. It is bounded on the north by Bavaria (Germany) and Lake Constance (Bodensee), on the west by Switzerland (across the Rhine River) and Liechtenstein, on the south by Switzerland, and on the east (over the Arlberg Pass) by Tirol. With an area of 1,004 square miles (2,601 square km), the state is drained by the Ill River and the Bregenzer River; the terrain is level south of Lake Constance and in the Rhine and Ill valleys, hilly in the forested Bregenzer Forest (see Bregenzerwald; northeast), and mountainous in the Silvretta Alps (south), whose highest peak is Mount Buin (10,866 feet [3,312 metres]).

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