The Heber is a
hogback ridge, relatively small in area and up to 313.5 metres high, in the
Lower Saxon Hills The Lower Saxon Hills (german: Niedersächsisches Bergland) are one of the 73 natural regions in Germany defined by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). Geographically it covers roughly the same area as the Weser Uplands (german: Weserb ...
within the districts of
Goslar
Goslar (; Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines ...
,
Northeim
Northeim (; nds, Nuurten) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, seat of the district of Northeim, with, in 2011, a population of 29,000. It lies on the German Half-Timbered House Road.
History
Northeim is first mentioned in 800 in a document ...
and
Hildesheim
Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the L ...
in the German state of
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
.
Geography
The Heber is oriented from northwest to southeast and lies in the southwestern part of the
Innerste Uplands
The Innerste Uplands (german: Innerstebergland) is a landscape region up to 359 m high and covering an area of over 900 km² in the northern part of the German Central Uplands. It lies within the eastern part of the Weser-Leine Uplands ...
, the northeasternmost part of the Lower Saxon Hills where it transitions to the
Leine Uplands
The Leine Uplands (german: Leinebergland, ) is a region in Germany's Central Uplands which forms a part of the Lower Saxon Hills and lies along the River Leine between Göttingen and Hanover. It borders on the Weser Uplands in the west, the Inne ...
(Alfeld Uplands). It is located in the western
Harz Foreland
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
roughly between
Lamspringe by the source region of the River
Lamme in the northwest and the town of
Seesen
Seesen is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx. west of Goslar.
History
The Saxon settlement of ''Sehusa'' was first mentioned i ...
on the River Schildau by the
Harz Mountains
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
in the southeast. Some distance away to the north are
Bockenem
Bockenem (; Eastphalian: ''Bokeln'') is a town in the district of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany that was founded in 1154. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road.
Surrounding villages
*Jerze
*Königsdahlum
*Bornum
*Mahlum
*Schlewecke ...
on the
Nette
Nette can refer to: Rivers
* Nette (Innerste), a river in Lower Saxony, Germany, tributary to the Innerste
* Nette (Hase), a river in Lower Saxony, Germany, tributary to the Hase
* Nette (Middle Rhine), a river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, tr ...
and
Bad Gandersheim
Bad Gandersheim (Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Ganderssen'') is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the district of Northeim (district), Northeim. , it had a population of 9,492.
Bad Gandersheim has many half-timbered hou ...
on the
Gande to the southwest. The Heber region forms part of the districts of Hildesheim (north), Goslar (east) and Northeim (west). To the northeast is the
Ambergau The Ambergau is a historic landscape and natural region unit in the Innerste Uplands in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a basin, about 10 x 10 kilometres across, with 18 settlements (there were 31 in the Middle Ages), the centre and capit ...
(or Bockenem) bowl.
The Heber is surrounded by a number of hill ranges: the
Harplage
The Harplage is a hill range, up to 290 metres high, located west-northwest of the Harz in the southeast of the German state of Lower Saxony.
Geography
The forested Harplage is located in the district of Hildesheim in the southwestern part ...
to the north, the foothills of the
Harz Mountains
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
to the southeast, the
Helleberg to the southwest, the
Sackwald to the west, the
Vorberge to the northwest and, several kilometres away, the
Hildesheim Forest
The Hildesheim Forest (german: Hildesheimer Wald) is a range of hills up to in the district of Hildesheim in the German state of Lower Saxony.
Geography
The Hildesheim Forest is located in the Innerste Uplands, part of the Lower Saxon Hills ...
to the northwest. A number of streams rise within and on the edge of the Heber whose waters sooner or later make their way into the northwards-flowing
Innerste
The Innerste is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Leine river and in length.
Origin of the name
The river name is not related to the German word ''innerste'' meaning innermost. ''Innerste'', in earlier times c ...
or the westward-flowing
Leine
The Leine (; Old Saxon ''Lagina'') is a river in Thuringia and Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Aller and the Weser and is long.
The river's source is located close to the town of Leinefelde in Thuringia. About downriver, ...
; the ridges thus lies on the
watershed between the two rivers.
The unpopulated Heber is crossed by hiking trails that enable visitors to explore the densely wooded landscape. The ridge may be accessed from various ''
Landesstraße
''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'') are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads t ...
n'' and ''
Kreisstraße
A Kreisstraße (literally: "district road" or "county road") is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a '' Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße ...
n'', many of them winding, that branch off the
64,
243 and
248 federal roads and from the
A 7 motorway and circumnavigate the forest region linking, for example, Lamspringe, Seesen and Bad Gandersheim with one another.
Description
The ridge measures roughly 10 km long by around 1 to 2 km wide and is covered by beech and spruce forests. The highest elevation of the Heber is the Mechtshäuser Berg in the borough of Seesen at . Geologically it is a
hogback formed predominantly from
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
. Southwest of the Heber is the ''Heber-
Börde
A ''börde'' (plural: ''börden'') is a region of highly fertile lowland in North Germany, a "fertile plain". These landscapes often cover great areas and are particularly important for arable farming on account of their rich soils.
These region ...
'', a basin-like countryside with fertile
loess soils.
The K 363 road that crossed the Heber has stretches on both sides of the ridge with a 10% gradient. There are six
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...
s on the Heber.
Sights
Near the little village of Gremsheim stands the biggest
Dwarf Beech
The dwarf beech, ''Fagus sylvatica'' Tortuosa Group, is a rare cultivar group of the European Beech with fewer than 1500 older specimens in Europe. It is also known as twisted beech or parasol beech.
It is a wide-spreading tree with distinctive ...
in Germany. In the southeast of the Heberwald lies the village of
Mechtshausen with the final resting place of the poet,
Wilhelm Busch
Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day.
Busch drew on the tropes of f ...
. Also in the south above the village of
Bilderlahe stands the ruined
Wohlenstein Castle on a cone-shaped outlier of the Heber. From there, there are views over the southern exit to the
Ambergau The Ambergau is a historic landscape and natural region unit in the Innerste Uplands in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a basin, about 10 x 10 kilometres across, with 18 settlements (there were 31 in the Middle Ages), the centre and capit ...
.
Several kilometres west of the Heber, on the old railway line from
Kreiensen
Kreiensen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town Einbeck.
Geography
Kreiensen is situated on the river Leine, approx. north of Northeim, and so ...
to
Hildesheim
Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the L ...
for about 12 km, between Lamspringe and Bad Gandersheim, sculptures by international sculptors have been set up which has given the cycleway the name of Sculpture Way (''Skulpturenweg'').
Hills
The hills in and near the Heber include the:
* Hohe Dehne (317.6 m) – in the abbey forest east of Lamspringe
* Mechtshäuser Berg (313.5 m) – highest hill in the Heber, southwest of Mechtshausen
* Klei (312.9 m) – west of Engelade
* Wausterberg (298 m) – east of
Dannhausen
* Clausberg (287 m) – southeast of Lamspringe
* Schwalenberg (277 m) – southeast of Dannhausen
* Heberberg (276.6 m) – immediately southeast of Lamspringe
* Toter Mann (272 m) – southwest of Ammenhausen
* Hoher Hagen (266 m) – south of Glashütte
* Panshäuser Berg (258 m) – west of Rhüden and northwest of Oberpanshausen
* Heberg (225 m) – southwest of Wohlenhausen
Settlements
Amongst the settlements in the area of the Heber are:
*
Lamspringe, northwest of the Heber
*
Seesen
Seesen is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx. west of Goslar.
History
The Saxon settlement of ''Sehusa'' was first mentioned i ...
, southeast of the Heber
*
Bad Gandersheim
Bad Gandersheim (Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Ganderssen'') is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the district of Northeim (district), Northeim. , it had a population of 9,492.
Bad Gandersheim has many half-timbered hou ...
, southwest of the Heber
Sources
* Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumforschung: Geographische Landesaufnahme 1:200,000. Naturräumliche Gliederung Deutschlands. Die naturräumlichen Einheiten auf Blatt 99 Göttingen. Bad Godesberg 1963
External links
Heberberg nature reserve
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heber
Hill ranges of Lower Saxony
Forests and woodlands of Lower Saxony
Goslar (district)
Hildesheim (district)
Northeim (district)
Natural regions of the Weser-Leine Uplands