The Heidenköpfe (plural) are a group of three summits (Heidenkopf I, Heidenkopf II und Heidenkopf III) near Dahlem in Germany that are about . They lie within the mountain region of North Eifel in the counties of

Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') 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 to ...

and Vulkaneifel in the states of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

(NW) and

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

(RP).

Geography

Location

The ''Heidenköpfe'' lie within the Ripsdorf Forest, part of the North Eifel, and also within the northern part of the

High Fens-Eifel Nature Park High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

and southern part of the Volcanic Eifel Nature Park. They are on average about 2 kilometres east of Dahlem (NW), 3.5 kilometres south-southeast of

Schmidtheim Dahlem is a municipality in the district of Euskirchen. It has the lowest population density and population of all municipalities of in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Eifel hills, approx. 35 km south-west o ...

(NW), 3.5 kilometres northwest of Esch (RP) and 3 kilometres ( as the crow flies) west of Waldorf (NW). The forested ''Heidenköpfe'' rise only gently above the aforementioned villages, which are not far below them. Among the streams on the ''Heidenköpfen'' are the

Kyll The Kyll (), noted by the Roman poet Ausonius as ''Celbis'',Ausonius, ''Mosella'', v. 359 is a river in western Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate), left tributary of the Moselle. It rises in the Eifel mountains, near the b ...

tributary of the Glaadtbach (''Schmidtheimer Morbach'') which rises on ''Heidenkopf I'' the Glaadtbach tributary of the

Morbach Morbach is a municipality that belongs to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also a state-recognized climatic resort (''Luftkurort''). G ...

which rises on ''Heidenkopf II'' and the

Ahr Ahr () is a river in Germany, a left tributary of the Rhine. Its source is at an elevation of approximately above sea level in Blankenheim in the Eifel, in the cellar of a timber-frame house near the castle of Blankenheim. After it crosses fro ...

tributary of the Schaafbach (''Eichholzbach'') which has its source on ''Heidenkopf III''.

Summits

The three ''Heidenköpfe'' are as follows – with height in

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

s (m) above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

(NHN): * ''Heidenkopf I'' (ca. 591 m; ), NW; hillock; with

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

* ''Heidenkopf II'' (588.5 m; ), NW; hill spur; with firing range * ''Heidenkopf III'' (ca. 595 m; ), NW / RP; '' kuppe''; with

Roman road from Trier to Cologne

The old

Roman road from Trier to Cologne The Roman road from Trier to Cologne is part of the ''Via Agrippa'', a Roman era long distance road network, that began at Lyon. The section from Augusta Treverorum (Trier) to the CCAA (Cologne), the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inf ...

used to run through the wooded region between ''Heidenkopf I'' and ''III''. A section of this has been exposed together with the ''Vierherrenstein'', a stone marker that lies on the boundary between the local parishes 620 metres southwest of ''Heidenkopf III''.

Transport and hiking

The B 51 runs past the ''Heidenköpfen'' to the northwest and west between Dahlem and Schmidtheim, and the B 421 to the southwest and south between

and Jünkerath. The

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 ...

67 branches off the latter in Jünkerath and runs northeast to Esch and then continues to Waldorf. The

Eifel Line The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

(Eifel Railway) runs past the hills to the west through Schmidtheim, Dahlem and Jünkerath, from where the Venn Railway once branched off and headed for

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. From these transport axes there are several forest trails and tracks to the hills.

References

Projekte vor allem nach Klaus Grewe, in Erftstadt Kolloquium, p. 61–64 {{DEFAULTSORT:Heidenkopfe Mountains and hills of the Eifel Mountains and hills of North Rhine-Westphalia Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate Euskirchen (district) Vulkaneifel