The Western Plateau is Australia's largest drainage division. It incorporates one third of the continent; 2,700,000 square kilometres of arid land including large parts of
Plateaus that contain rivers also contain canyons that have been cut by the rivers as they have sought to reach the level of the lake or ocean into which they flow.
If the plateau is built on sedimentary rock (rock formed by the accumulation and compression of sediment, which may consist of rock fragments, remains of microscopic organisms, and minerals), its layers will tend to be horizontal, and the landforms on it will have level or flat tops.
The plateau itself is still geologically active and continues to rise, gaining an average of 0.04 inch (0.1 centimeter) per year in elevation.
In the north and northwest, the Swiss plateau is sharply delimited geographically and geologically by the Jura mountains.
In the southwest, the Swiss plateau is confined by the Lake Geneva, in the northeast, by the Lake Constance and the Rhine.
After the retreat of the Roman Empire, the western Swiss plateau was occupied by the romanized Burgundians, the central and the eastern plateau by the Alamanni, thus emerging the language border.
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