"The site, which is the subject of the application, covers an area of 211,577 ha. It is a transboundary site, serial, focused on the geological values (criterion viii) and constituted by a perimeter at the same time terrestrial and marine belonging to 3 States: Monaco, Italy and France. The Monegasque State is concerned by a marine hold.
This transboundary site is located south of the alpine chain, between the departments of the Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the south-east of France and the regions of Piedmont and Liguria in the north-west. from Italy. It is a protected area that includes protected natural areas bordering such as the Alpi Marittime / Mercantour European Park, the Alpi Liguri Park, the sites of community interest of the Province of Imperia and the Department of the Alpes-Maritimes, as well as 'a marine domain encompassing a large portion of the continental margin between Villefranche sur Mer, Monaco and Ventimiglia.
The geological origins of the region date back to 400 million years ago; the site shows, in the same place and in a clear way, the formation of two mountain ranges (Variscan and Alpine) which are superimposed, towards -30 million years, the tectonic phenomenon of the opening of the Western Mediterranean. This last tectonic phenomenon leads to the transversal rupture of a still young mountain range, the Western Alps, by the opening of an ocean basin: the western Mediterranean.
However, since the advent of "plate tectonics" as an explanatory model of the evolution of the history of planet Earth, geologists have shown that most mountain ranges (1) are the result of the closure of 'an old ocean and (2) erodes and disappears gradually to give way to a stable continent. In relation to this general "diagram" of the functioning of the Earth, the Mediterranean Alps constitute the most exemplary site of the tearing of a mountainous massif still under construction by the opening of an ocean which is posterior to it. The transverse tear of the largest European mountain range offers a spectacular topography and a continuous elevation of nearly 6000m from the peaks of the Argentera-Mercantour at 3300 m to the seabed of the western Mediterranean at -2500 m."
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List
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