Mont Lozère is a wide barren ridge, dotted with granite rocks, which extends from west to east. It separates the southern protestant Cévennes from the catholic Gévaudan in the north. It had been used for centuries as a summer grazing for the sheep of Camargue and of the department of Gard. From the XII it had been a property of the Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John, who then becamethe Knights of Malta. The symbol of the cross of Malta can be found on many of the granite boundary stones along the sheep tracks, placed from time immemorial to guide shepherds and travellers on the often foggy mountain, where it was easy to get lost.