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Cirque du Fer-à-Cheval
The Fer-à-Cheval cirque owes its name to the characteristic shape of its rock walls, which spread over nearly five kilometres in a natural amphitheatre closing the upper Giffre valley. This glacial cirque, one of the largest in the French Alps, has limestone cliffs exceeding 500 metres in height in places, streaked in spring and after rain by about thirty waterfalls that plunge from the summit ledges. The site, classified as a nature reserve with the neighbouring Passy massif, shelters remarkable alpine fauna, ibex and chamois moving on vertiginous ledges under the eyes of hikers using the marked paths at the foot of the walls. Accessible from the village of Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval, a few kilometres from Samoëns, the site is among the great classics of hiking in Haute-Savoie, offering a striking mineral spectacle in every season.
