Lake Thun in the context of "Brünig Pass"

The Bernese Alps are a mountain range of the Alps located in western Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Berner Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Valais, Fribourg and Vaud, the latter being usually named Fribourg Alps and Vaud Alps respectively. The highest mountain in the range, the Finsteraarhorn, is also the highest point in the canton of Bern.

The Rhône valley separates them from the Chablais Alps in the west and from the Pennine Alps in the south; the upper Rhône valley separates them from the Lepontine Alps to the southeast; the Grimsel Pass and the Aare valley separates them from the Uri Alps in the east, and from the Emmental Alps in the north; their northwestern edge is not well defined, describing a line roughly from Lake Geneva to Lake Thun. The Bernese Alps are drained by the river Aare and its tributary the Saane in the north, the Rhône in the south, and the Reuss in the east.

The Bernese Oberland (German: Berner Oberland [ˈbɛrnər ˈoːbərland]; Alemannic German: Bärner Oberland; French: Oberland bernois [obɛʁlɑ̃d bɛʁnwa]), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as Oberland without further specification). It constitutes the Alpine region of the canton and the northern side of the Bernese Alps, including many of its highest peaks, among which the Finsteraarhorn (4,274 m (14,022 ft)), the highest in both range and canton.

The region essentially coincides with the upper basin of the Aare, the latter notably including Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, the two large lakes of the region. On the banks of the lakes or the Aare are the main settlements of Thun, Spiez, Interlaken, Brienz and Meiringen. The numerous side valleys of the Bernese Oberland include a large number of Alpine villages, many of them being tourist resorts and connected by mountain railways to Spiez and Interlaken. The Lötschberg, a major north-south axis through the Alps, links the region with both the capital of the canton, Bern, and its sizable southern neighbour, the canton of Valais.