The Eiger does not lie in the ridge of the Bernese Alps which divides the basins of the Rhone and the Aar, but forms a promontory extending north-east from the Mönch, and is connected with it by a long and high arête, in which jagged teeth of rock project through a coating of ice. At the southern end, where this arete abuts against the shoulder of the Mönch, it overlooks the gently-sloping plateau which forms the summit of the Mönchsjoch, and the descent on the side of the Aletsch Glacier presents no serious difficulty.