Rheinland Nature Park is a nature park in North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

, situated between Bergheim

Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia

Bergheim is a German city 20 km west of Cologne and the capital of the Rhein-Erft-Kreis. The city's Niederaußem district is one of the most important suppliers for energy from lignites in Europe.- Geography :...

, Kerpen

Kerpen

Kerpen is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia. Germany. It is located about 30 kilometers southwest from Cologne.-Division of the town:...

, Erftstadt

Erftstadt

Erftstadt is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river which flows through it, the Erft...

, Euskirchen

Euskirchen

Euskirchen is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating back over 700 years, having been granted town-status in 1302....

, Königswinter

Königswinter

Königswinter is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite to Bonn, at the foot of the Siebengebirge.- Main sights :...

, Bornheim

Bornheim

Bornheim is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the West bank of the Rhine, approx. 10 km north-west of Bonn, 20 km south of Cologne....

, Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

, Brühl

Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia

Brühl is a town in the Rhineland of Germany. It is located in Rhein-Erft-Kreis, 20 km south of Cologne city center and at the edge of Naturpark Kottenforst-Ville Nature Reserve.-History:...

, Hürth

Hürth

Hürth is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Hürth shares borders with the city of Cologne.-Geography:Hürth is situated about 9 km to the southwest of Cologne city centre, at the northeastern slope of the natural preserve Kottenforst-Ville.The town, consisting of...

, Frechen

Frechen

Frechen is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Frechen was first mentioned in 877. It is situated at the western Cologne city border....

 and Pulheim

Pulheim

Pulheim is a city in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Since the 1920s, a large substation of the RWE has been sited at Pulheim...

. It covers an area of about 880 km².

Ville-Seen-Platte

Roughly translated, this would be the 'plateau of lakes in the Ville'.

In the vicinity of Erftstadt, Brühl and Hürth many small and large lakes have been created due to coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 mining

Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

. The reforestation of the area was begun in 1920 by planting beech

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

, pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

, oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

 and larch

Larch

Larches are conifers in the genus Larix, in the family Pinaceae. Growing from 15 to 50m tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains further south...

trees. Today, there are about forty lakes that have sprung from the mining operations.

List of lakes on the Villen-Seen-Platte:

• Concordia See
• Köttinger See
• Zieselsmaarsee
• Villesee
• Dinnendahlsee
• Liblarer See
• Forellenteich
• Obersee
• Mittelsee
• Untersee
• Bleibtreusee
• Silbersee
• Heider Bergsee
• Gruhlsee
• Margarethenweier
• Schluchtsee
• Franziskussee
• Karauschenweiher
• Teich
• Donatussee
• Zwillingssee
• Entenweiher
• Villenhofer Maar
• Pfingsdorfer See
• Fasanenweiher
• Forsthausweiher
• Lucretiasee
• Berggeistsee
• Gotteshülfeteich
• Otto-Maiglersee
• Waldsee
• Klärteich

External links

• Naturpark Rheinland (German)