Located in the French Pyrenees mountains, the Chemin de la Mâture is a 1,200-metre (3,900 ft) path carved into a sheer rock face rising over 200 metres (660 ft) above the torrential river Gave d’Aspe. Completed by the engineer Paul-Marie Leroy in 1772,the Chemin de la Mâture (literally “The Mast Road”) was originally created to transport timber from the nearby Pacq forest to be used in constructing French naval vessels. The path has since been incorporated into the GR 10, a long-distance footpath running along the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. (wikipedia)