Creux du Van

A rocky cirque about 1,400 metres wide and 150 deep on the north side of Le Soliat, shaped like an amphitheatre and set at the heart of a nature reserve of 15.5 square kilometres. It was cut in three phases: a glacier covering the Val de Travers around 140,000 years ago, whose meltwater eroded a V-shaped valley; further glaciers hollowing it out in later ice ages; and then much slower erosion once a harder layer was reached. Permafrost lay under the ground here until recently. Ibex were introduced in 1965.