The village Linthal lies at the head of the valley of the
Linth river, at an altitude of approximately . It is surrounded by mountains, including
Ortstock (),
Clariden (),
Tödi (),
Bifertenstock (),
Selbsanft (),
Ruchi (),
Hausstock () and
Kärpf (). The
Klausen Pass climbs out of the valley between the Ortstock and Clariden and carries a road into the
canton of Uri. The
Richetli Pass, between the Kärpf and Hausstock, carries a walking trail to the head of the valley of the
Sernf river, a tributary of the Linth. The village is divided into three sections: Matt, Dorf and Ennetlinth. To the north of Linthal, the next village down the valley is that of
Rüti, whilst the resort village of
Braunwald lies on a terrace some above the valley. To the south, there are no further villages in the valley, but a side road continues past scattered farmsteads to Tierfehd, where there is one of the
Linth–Limmern power stations. Beyond Tierfehd, the Linth valley splits into several tributary valleys, including those of the
Oberstafelbach, the
Bifertenbach, the
Sandbach, the
Walenbach and the
Limmerenbach. These collect the water from several glaciers, including the
Clariden Glacier and the
Biferten Glacier, and drain the
Limmerensee, a reservoir created as part of the Linth–Limmern scheme. The former municipal boundaries of Linthal, as of 2006, included all of the watershed of the Linth and its tributaries upstream of the village. This encompasses an area of , of which 16.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 15.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (66.8%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). It was the largest municipality in the Canton of Glarus, and is about 1/5 of the total area in the canton. ==Transport==