It’s the Alps, but not quite as we know them today.

Lavishly illustrated new book 'The Alps 1900. A Portrait in Color' by Agnes Couzy and Sabine Arque, published by Taschen, showcases a series of vintage pictures of the world-famous European mountain range from the late 1800s to the dawn of the 20th century.

In the introduction to the book, authors Couzy and Arque write: ‘Today we must mourn the loss of the vast glaciers whose sight contributed so much to the Alpine myth, and which are melting under global warming. Their retreat, which began around 1850, is constantly accelerating: between 1900 and 2012, glacier cover in the Alps has shrunk by half. In the pages of this grand tour of the Alps, they are restored to their former glory before your eyes.’

Many of the pictures that embellish the pages are Photochrom images – a process in which colour was applied to black-and-white photo negatives, breathing 'greater life into the image and serving to “romanticise” the landscapes’.

Though the Alps were drawing in affluent tourists from all over Europe at the turn of the 20th century, the authors note that the mountains were still relatively untouched at the time. They say: 'The photochroms and postcards in this book depict a world that is still an Eden, despite the first incursions by “civilization”, and that offers a refuge from the noisy cities.'

Publisher Taschen adds: 'A charming tour of a bygone era, The Alps 1900 recalls when the first mountain trains and cog railways were carrying men in lederhosen and women in long dresses to the foot of the glacier when local guides accompanied tourists riding on mules; a time when the first alpinists were considered mad, and skiers were a curiosity.' Scroll down for a trip through time…