Ilmenau is a town located in the district of Ilm-Kreis

Ilm-Kreis

Ilm-Kreis is a district in Thuringia, Germany. It is bounded by the city of Erfurt, the districts of Weimarer Land, Saalfeld-Rudolstadt and Hildburghausen, the city of Suhl, and the districts of Schmalkalden-Meiningen and Gotha...

, Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Ilmenau is situated in the valley of the Ilm river

Ilm (Thuringia)

The Ilm is a long river in Thuringia, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Saale, into which it flows in Großheringen near Bad Kösen.Towns along the Ilm are Ilmenau, Stadtilm, Kranichfeld, Bad Berka, Weimar, Apolda and Bad Sulza....

, at an altitude of 431 metres (1,415 feet) above sea level, and is the biggest town in Ilm-Kreis district, with 6,200 students studying at the Technische Universität Ilmenau

Technische Universität Ilmenau

The Ilmenau University of Technology is the technical university of Thuringia and located in Ilmenau Germany...

. The surrounding area is marked by the Thuringian Forest

Thuringian Forest

The Thuringian Forest running northwest to southeast, forms a continuous stretch of ancient rounded mountains posing ample difficulties in transit routing save through a few navigable passes in the southern reaches of the German state of Thuringia. It is about long and wide...

 and its mountains. The highest mountain of Ilmenau is the Kickelhahn (German for rooster

Rooster

A rooster, also known as a cockerel, cock or chanticleer, is a male chicken with the female being called a hen. Immature male chickens of less than a year's age are called cockerels...

, which is also found in the coat of arms of Ilmenau), with a height of 861 metres.