The Alps are an arched mountain chain stretching 1500 km between Vienna and Graz in Austria and Genova in Italy. They resulted from the collision of the African and Laurasian plates during Mesozoic and Tertiary times. The high standard of knowledge attained over the last 30 years by the working groups on "Alpine Metamorphism" is well known and helped considerably to recognize pre-Mesozoic elements in the Alps. In Part I of this book the subdivision of the major Alpine units and pre-Mesozoic pal inspastic reconstructions are covered before discussion of the pre-Mesozoic geology in Parts II,...