France scenic viewpoint
Aiguille du Midi
You can see 249 km from here, looking west.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 249 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 249 kmFarthest ridgelooking west
- 97%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 669Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 3,685 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 669 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are from July to September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west12 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- Febwest-4 min before the sea-level sunset26%
- Marwest-4 min before the sea-level sunset30%
- Aprwest-4 min before the sea-level sunset31%
- Maynorth-west-6 min before the sea-level sunset27%
- Junnorth-west-6 min before the sea-level sunset34%
- Julnorth-west-6 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Augwest-6 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Sepwest-4 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Octwest-4 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Novsouth-west-4 min before the sea-level sunset25%
- Decsouth-west14 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Aiguille du Midi.
Mountain
Aiguille du Midi is a scenic viewpoint in France, 3,685 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 249 km away, looking west.
669 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Mont Blanc (4,806 m), 6 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 97% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from July to September.
Get there and stay
- Camping Les Arollescampsite · 4.3 km · 28 within 10 km
- Auberge de jeunesse de Chamonixplace to stay · 4.2 km · 156 within 10 km
- Chamonix-Mont-Blancnearest town · 5.2 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in Chamonix-Mont-BlancBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Annecy Meythet airport (NCY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 61 km in a straight lineCar hire at GVA airport (Geneva)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 30other viewpoints within 5 kmChalet des Pyramides, La Jonction, Terrasse 3842 and 27 more
- 76named peaks within 5 kmAiguille du Midi, Mont Blanc du Tacul, Aiguille du Plan and 73 more
- 13cable car and funicular stations within 5 kmAiguille du Midi 1, Glacier des Bossons, Aiguille du Midi 2 and 10 more
- 21marked trails within 3 kmPlan de l'Aiguille - Montenvers and 20 more
- 17shelters and huts within 5 kmBivacco della Brenva, Bivacco Alberico e Borgna and 15 more
- 9car parks within 3 km
- 3visitor centres within 5 kmOffice de Tourisme, Club Alpin Français de Chamonix
- 4restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 28campsites within 10 kmCamping Les Arolles, Mer de Glace, bivouac Brévent and 25 more
- 156places to stay within 10 kmAuberge de jeunesse de Chamonix, Chalet Union, Le Refuge des Aiglons and 153 more
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Aiguille du Midi, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas342 mountains within 25 km
Forestyas1 forests and trees within 15 km
Canyonyas1 canyons within 20 km
Cascadyas2 waterfalls within 15 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Aiguille du Midi
France
- 76Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 669Peaks in view
- 3,685 mAltitude
Mont Blanc
France · 5 km
- 77Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 1,263Peaks in view
- 4,791 mAltitude
Grandes Jorasses
Italy · 8 km
- 77Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 1,298Peaks in view
- 4,128 mAltitude
Chaîne des Fiz
France · 14 km
- 76Viewyas Score
- 236 kmFarthest ridge
- 778Peaks in view
- 2,694 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q404728) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Forestyas, Canyonyas, Cavernyas, Cascadyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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