Let's start at the beginning, long before the Romans but still long after the dinosaurs, when the Lake Geneva basin was covered by an immense sea of ice. Let's travel 60,000 years back in time, on a glacier over 900 metres thick. The glacier, not being a stoic mass where nothing happens, dug into the rock. In fact, as it flowed, the ice rubbed against the rock and sculpted the Rhône valley and Lake Geneva, like a river sculpting its bed. Thus began the creation of the varied aspects and complex geology of Lake Geneva.
Before deglaciation, the Rhône glacier continued its advance until it reached the Lyon region, then started moving in the other direction, retreating as far as Geneva, depositing its alluvial deposits on the site of what was to become Geneva's old town. As early as 16,000 BC, the lake's first water basin appeared, partially free of ice and with a level 30 metres higher than that which we know today. Erratic boulders were also deposited here, such as the two famous Pierres-du-Niton, which can be seen from the shores of the lake in Geneva harbour.
Then came the BØlling climatic period, around 12,000 BC, and its warmth, which allowed vegetation to flourish and the lake level to drop. Junipers, dwarf birches, herbaceous plants, pines and willows colonised the shores of Lake Geneva, but they didn't stay there alone for very long, because humans arrived... A lakeside civilisation, with fascinating adaptations, began to develop... More in the next 60 seconds.
