The
Jura Mountains (
JOOR-ə, ZHOOR-ə) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western
Alps 
and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper ("folded Jura",
Faltenjura) is located in France and Switzerland, the range continues northeastwards through northern Switzerland and Germany as the Table Jura ("not folded Jura",
Tafeljura), which is crossed by the High Rhine.
Name
The mountain range gives its name to the French department of Jura, the Swiss
Canton of Jura 
, the Jurassic period of the geologic timescale, and the Montes Jura of the Moon.
It is first attested as mons Iura in book one of Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Strabo uses a Greek masculine form ὁ Ἰόρας ("through the Jura mountains", διὰ τοῦ Ἰόρα ὄρους) in his Geographica (4.6.11). Based on suggestions by Ferdinand de Saussure, early celticists such as Georges Dottin tried to establish an etymon "iura-, iuri" as a Celtic word for mountains, with similar putative etymologies (e.g.