Hesse Highlands


The Hesse Highlands, Hessian Highlands or Hessian Highlands and Lowlands, are a largely densely forested low mountain area in the German state of Hesse that lies between the Rhenish Massif and the western edge of the Thuringian Basin. The Hesse Highlands are both part of the German Central Uplands and the Rhine-Weser Watershed.
The Hessian Highlands correspond to the geological structural unit known as the Hessian Depression in its broader sense, because here geologically young layers of Zechstein and Bunter sandstone, and in places even younger rocks like Muschelkalk, of the Jurassic, Paleogene and Neogene periods, have been preserved.
The Hessian Highlands are divided from a natural regional perspective into the West Hesse Highlands or West Hessian Lowlands and Highlands and the volcanically influenced East Hesse Highlands, that are separated by the West Hesse Depression. Whilst the West Hesse Highlands Lowlands lie entirely on Hessian soil, the East Hesse Highlands have foothills extending into the states of Lower Saxony, Bavaria and Thuringia.

Literature