Basel is the capital of Basel-Stadt and is Switzerland's third most populous city.
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Located in north-west
Switzerland on the river
Rhine,
Basel functions as a major industrial centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.
The city borders both
Germany and
France and has
Switzerland's only cargo port, through which goods pass along the navigable stretches of the
Rhine.
The Swiss chemical industry operates largely from
Basel, with
Novartis,
Clariant,
Ciba and
Hoffmann-La Roche headquartered there. Pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals have become the modern focus of the city's industrial production.
Numerous major Swiss banks maintain central offices in
Basel, giving finance a pivotal role in the local economy. The importance of banking began when the
Bank for International Settlements located within the city in 1930.
The Romanesque Munster, with its two (uneven) towers forms an architectural monument which survived medieval earthquake. The
Tomb of Erasmus lies inside the
Munster.
Basel also has Switzerland's tallest building,
Basler Messeturm.
Basel hosts Switzerland's oldest university, the
University of Basel, dating from 1459.
Erasmus,
Paracelsus,
Daniel Bernoulli,
Leonhard Euler and
Friedrich Nietzsche worked here. More recently, its work in tropical medicine has gained prominence.
