Thuringian Highland
Encyclopedia
The Thuringian Highland or Thuringian Highlands ( or Thüringisches Schiefergebirge, literally "Thuringian Slate Hills") is a low range of mountains in the German state of Thuringia
.
to the southwest. It is plateau about 20 km wide that slopes southeast towards the Saale
valley in the area of the Saale Valley Dam and includes parts of the Thuringian Forest
and Thuringian Highland and Upper Saale Nature Parks.
The largest towns in the Thuringian Highland are Saalfeld and Bad Blankenburg
which lie on its northern perimeter, Neuhaus am Rennweg
in the highest region and Bad Lobenstein
on the eastern edge (where it transitions into Franconian Forest).
The area includes a total of 4 smaller regions:
The slate mountains of the Vogtland and Thuringian Highland stretch from the Thuringian Forest to the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge). They are between about 300 m to high, and comprise gently rolling hills which are part of the backbone of the Central Uplands
. They extend for about 75 km from east to west and 50 km from north to south. Typical features of the landscape are the dolerite peaks or Kuppen (like the Pöhlde
or the Hübel) with their wooded crests. These are made from a volcanic rock, dolerite, which is harder than the surrounding rocks and so weathers more slowly, giving rise to the characteristic Kuppen.
rock. Although this region was formed in a similar way to the Harz
, it lacks the sharp divisions caused by fault lines. Almost all the way round the region transitions gradually into the surrounding land. The rocks found here are from the Palaeozoic era, i.e. the Ordovician
, Silurian
, Devonian
and Lower Carboniferous periods. The most important ones are:
Karst
-forming, and hence cave-forming, limestone only occurs in a few, small, isolated areas. As a result the number of caves is very low.
in Germany, which form the Hohenwarte and Bleiloch Reservoirs. In the Schwarza Valley there is the Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station
, opened in 2003, which is one of the larges pumped-storage hydro-electric power stations
in Europe.
and Saale
the height difference between hilltops and valley bottoms is often as much as 300 m or more, which is large for hills of this size.
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....
.
Geography
The Thuringian Highland borders on the Thuringian ForestThuringian 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...
to the southwest. It is plateau about 20 km wide that slopes southeast towards the Saale
Saale
The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale and Thuringian Saale , is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the Main, or the Saale in Lower Saxony, a tributary of the Leine.-Course:The Saale...
valley in the area of the Saale Valley Dam and includes parts of the Thuringian Forest
Thuringian Forest Nature Park
The Thuringian Forest Nature Park is one of the two nature parks in Thuringia.The 1990 founded park has a size of 2082 km². It extents around the Rennsteig and comprises almost the entire Thuringian Forest and the Thuringian Highlands with Eisenach in northwest and Sonneberg in the south...
and Thuringian Highland and Upper Saale Nature Parks.
The largest towns in the Thuringian Highland are Saalfeld and Bad Blankenburg
Bad Blankenburg
Bad Blankenburg is a spa town in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 6 km southwest of Rudolstadt, and 37 km southeast of Erfurt....
which lie on its northern perimeter, Neuhaus am Rennweg
Neuhaus am Rennweg
Neuhaus am Rennweg is a town in the district of Sonneberg, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, 17 km north of Sonneberg, and 22 km southwest of Saalfeld.-References:...
in the highest region and Bad Lobenstein
Bad Lobenstein
Bad Lobenstein is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany with a population of circa 7,000 inhabitants. The town, grouped round a rock, upon which stand the ruins of an old castle, is exceedingly picturesque. It contains a spacious parish church, a palace , and a hydropathic...
on the eastern edge (where it transitions into Franconian Forest).
The area includes a total of 4 smaller regions:
- upper Saale valley
- Plothen Lake District
- High slate mountains
- Sormitz-SchwarzaSchwarza River (Saale)The Schwarza is a left tributary of the Saale in Thuringia, Germany, and 53 km long. Its source is in the Thuringian Forest, near Neuhaus am Rennweg. It flows into the Saale in Rudolstadt. Other towns on the Schwarza are Schwarzburg and Bad Blankenburg. It has 50 tributaries, the largest being the...
region
The slate mountains of the Vogtland and Thuringian Highland stretch from the Thuringian Forest to the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge). They are between about 300 m to high, and comprise gently rolling hills which are part of the backbone of the Central Uplands
Central Uplands
The Central Uplands is one of the three major natural regions of Germany and covers most of the land area of the country. To the north lies the North German Plain or Northern Lowland; to the south, the Alps and the Alpine Foreland.- Formation :...
. They extend for about 75 km from east to west and 50 km from north to south. Typical features of the landscape are the dolerite peaks or Kuppen (like the Pöhlde
Pöhlde
Pöhlde is a village in southern Lower Saxony in Germany. It is part of the town Herzberg am Harz. It has a population of 2207 . Archaeological excavation has revealed traces of settlement dating to the 2nd through 4th centuries AD. The town is noted for its Benedictine abbey...
or the Hübel) with their wooded crests. These are made from a volcanic rock, dolerite, which is harder than the surrounding rocks and so weathers more slowly, giving rise to the characteristic Kuppen.
Geology
As its German name suggests, the Thuringian Highland is mainly made of slateSlate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
rock. Although this region was formed in a similar way to the Harz
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
, it lacks the sharp divisions caused by fault lines. Almost all the way round the region transitions gradually into the surrounding land. The rocks found here are from the Palaeozoic era, i.e. the Ordovician
Ordovician
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...
, Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
, Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
and Lower Carboniferous periods. The most important ones are:
- ShaleShaleShale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
, - Alaunschiefer,
- RadiolariteRadiolariteRadiolarite is a siliceous, comparatively hard, fine-grained, chert-like, and homogeneous sedimentary rock that is composed predominantly of the microscopic remains of radiolarians. This term is also used for indurated radiolarian oozes and sometimes as a synonym of radiolarian earth...
, - LimestoneLimestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, - SandstoneSandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
, - GreywackeGreywackeGreywacke or Graywacke is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lithic fragments set in a compact, clay-fine matrix. It is a texturally immature sedimentary rock generally found...
, - Dolerite,
- Spilite
- and volcanic conglomerates.
Karst
KARST
Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
-forming, and hence cave-forming, limestone only occurs in a few, small, isolated areas. As a result the number of caves is very low.
Rivers and hydro-electric power
In the Saale Valley there are two of the largest damsDAMS
Driot-Arnoux Motorsport is a racing team from France, involved in many areas of motorsports. DAMS was founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula One driver René Arnoux. It is headquartered near Le Mans, only 2 km from the Bugatti Circuit.- History :The year after its foundation,...
in Germany, which form the Hohenwarte and Bleiloch Reservoirs. In the Schwarza Valley there is the Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station
Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station
The Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station is a pump-fed power station in the Thüringer slate mountains at the upper run of the Schwarza between Goldisthal and disk when brook and in the year 2003 in enterprise was taken. It is with an output of 1.060 MW the largest hydro-electric power plant of Germany...
, opened in 2003, which is one of the larges pumped-storage hydro-electric power stations
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric power generation used by some power plants for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost off-peak electric power is used to run the pumps...
in Europe.
Mountains and hills
Around the steep-sided valleys of the SchwarzaSchwarza River (Saale)
The Schwarza is a left tributary of the Saale in Thuringia, Germany, and 53 km long. Its source is in the Thuringian Forest, near Neuhaus am Rennweg. It flows into the Saale in Rudolstadt. Other towns on the Schwarza are Schwarzburg and Bad Blankenburg. It has 50 tributaries, the largest being the...
and Saale
Saale
The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale and Thuringian Saale , is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the Main, or the Saale in Lower Saxony, a tributary of the Leine.-Course:The Saale...
the height difference between hilltops and valley bottoms is often as much as 300 m or more, which is large for hills of this size.
- Großer Farmdenkopf (869 m), Sonneberg district
- Kieferle (867 m), Sonneberg district
- Bleßberg (865 m), Hildburghausen district
- Dürre Fichte (861 m), Sonneberg district
- Breitenberg (Thuringian Forest) (844 m), Sonneberg district
- Fellberg (842 m), Steinach, Sonneberg district
- Eselsberg (842 m), Hildburghausen district, Thuringian Forest/Thuringian Highland border
- Pechleite (839 m), Hildburghausen district
- Fehrenberg (835 m), Hildburghausen district, Thuringian Forest/Thuringian Highland border
- Hoher Schuß (827 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Wurzelberg (820 m), Sonneberg district
- Jagdschirm (813 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Hintere Haube (811 m), Ilm district
- Langer BergLanger BergLanger Berg is a Verwaltungsgemeinschaft in the district Ilm-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. The seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft is in Gehren....
(809 m), Ilm district - HettstädtHettstadtHettstadt is a municipality in the district of Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany....
(808 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district - RauhhügelRauhhügelThe Rauhhügel is a 812.9 m high mountain located in the Thuringian Highland, Thuringia .It is located close to the municipalities of Schmiedefeld and Lichte and the Leibis-Lichte Dam in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district in the Thuringian Forest Nature Park within walking distance of the...
(802 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district - Roter Berg (799 m), Sonneberg district
- Wetzstein (791 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Meuselbacher Kuppe (786 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Fröbelturm (784 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Grendel (784 m), Hildburghausen district, Thuringian Highland
- Spitzer Berg (781 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Simmersberg (781 m), Landkr. Hildburghausen, Thuringian Forest/Thuringian Highland border
- Himmelsleiter (Berg) (774 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Töpfersbühl (762 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Sieglitzberg (733 m), Saale-Orla district
- Kirchberg (Thuringia) (725,3 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Rosenberg (Thuringian Highland) (716 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Großer Mühlberg (714 m), Sonneberg district
- Quittelsberg (709 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Bocksberg (696 m), Sonneberg district
- Auf der Heide (668 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Beerberg (667 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Barigauer Höhe (665 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
- Zipptanskuppe (657 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Rosenbühl (653 m), Saale-Orla district
- Keilsburg (648 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- EisenbergEisenberg-In Germany:*Eisenberg, Thuringia, a town in the Saale-Holzland district, Thuringia.*Eisenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, a town in the Donnersbergkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate.*Eisenberg, Bavaria, a municipality in the district of Ostallgäu in Bavaria.-In Austria:...
(636 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland - Talberg (602 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Batzenberg (588 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Schwarzer Berg (Thuringia) (582 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Elmischer Berg (529 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Geiersberg (520 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Rabenhügel (506 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Roderberg (502 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Sommerberg (493 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
- Ziegenberg (460 m), Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district, Thuringian Highland
Literature
- Ernst Kaiser: Thüringerwald und Schiefergebirge, 2. verb. und erg. Aufl., Gotha 1955.
- Adolf Hanle (Hrsg.): Thüringerwald und Schiefergebirge, Mannheim u.a. 1992. ISBN 3-411-07191-5