No full and coherent history of the Alps has been presented until now ("Eine umfassende und kohärente Geschichte der Alpen wurde bisher noch nicht vorgelegt", http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/d/D8569.php); rather different, physiogeographical and economical-political definitions of the Alps are competing with each other ("naturräumliche" und "wirtschaftlich-politische Alpendefinitionen", Bätzing 1997, 23 f.). In the sense of a transparent and pragmatic definition, the area under investigation of this project has been equated with the clearly defined purview of the Alpine Convention. The inconsistencies between the member states ("Inkonsistenzen zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten", Bätzing 1997, 31)) which are defined in this treaty have been accepted by VerbaAlpina. They regard the Bavarian foothills of the Alps (included), larger areas at the edge of the Alps as the Emmental or the Zürcher Oberland ("größere randalpine Gebiete wie das Emmental oder das Zürcher Oberland", Bätzing 1997, 32), excluded) as well as some more important cities at the edge of the Alps: Lucerne and Salzburg are included, but Graz and Biella are excluded. The perimeter of the Alpine Convention can be downloaded here. The real aim of the project is, however, to record the Alps as linguistic-cultural area within this formally defined frame and to depict the similarity of the places belonging to the Alps.