Grande Dixence Dam

The Grande Dixence closes the head of a side valley above the Rhone with a wall of concrete that curves slightly and rises higher than almost any other gravity dam anywhere. It was built through the 1950s and early 1960s by thousands of workers living on site, fed by tunnels that collect meltwater from glaciers across a wide stretch of the Valais. From the road end you look straight up at it; a cable car lifts you to the crest, where the reservoir opens out grey-green between bare mountains. Guided tours go into galleries inside the wall, where the temperature drops sharply.

What you actually see

• The dam wall - the full height of the concrete face seen from the road at its foot.
• The crest and reservoir - the walk along the top with the lake and the peaks behind it.
• The interior galleries - tunnels inside the wall, cold and damp, visited on guided tours.
• The high paths - trails from the crest along the reservoir towards the glaciers that feed it.

When to go

The site is a summer proposition: the road, cable car and tours run roughly from late June into September and shut for the rest of the year. Mornings are clearer for the walk along the crest. Book interior tours ahead in July and August, when the schedule fills, and bring a jacket for the galleries.

Honest expectations

It is a long way up a dead-end valley on a winding road with limited bus times, and the whole thing closes outside the short season. The scale is impressive but the visit is short unless you walk from the crest. Inside the wall it is cold, dark and cramped, and tours are largely in French and German.

Nearby

Sion with its two castle hills lies down in the Rhone valley, and hiking routes lead on to the glaciers above.