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The three peaks -- Cima Grande, Cima Ovest, and Cima Piccola -- formed from ancient coral reef deposits, part of the same dolomite rock that gives the wider mountain range its name and its characteristic pale color.
The peaks sat directly on the front line between Italy and Austria-Hungary during World War I, when the border between the two empires ran through this section of the Dolomites -- soldiers on both sides carved trenches, tunnels, and gun positions directly into the surrounding rock, some of which are still visible today along marked paths around the base. After the war, the area passed to Italy along with the rest of South Tyrol, and the peaks became better known for climbing and hiking than for their military history.
Early 20th-century alpinists established the first technical routes up the three faces, with Cima Grande's north face in particular becoming one of the most famous and difficult big-wall climbs in the Alps, first climbed in 1933 by Emilio Comici, a pioneering Italian climber whose direct, exposed route up the sheer rock face is still considered a benchmark test piece today.
What began as a contested wartime frontier and later a serious alpinists' proving ground has become, since the mid-20th century, one of the most visited hiking destinations in the Dolomites -- the same north faces that challenged Comici's generation of climbers are now viewed by hikers on a well-marked path circling their base rather than only from a climbing rope.
The peaks were inscribed as part of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009, recognition of both their geological significance and their standing as one of the defining images of the entire mountain range.