The Hildesheim Forest (german: Hildesheimer Wald) is a range of hills up to in the district of

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 Hildesheim Forest is located in the Innerste Uplands, part of 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 ...

, between the valleys of the

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, ...

to the west, the

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 ...

to the north and the Lamme to the east. These densely forested hills, which are bordered to the east by the Sauberge and lie a few kilometres west-southwest of the Vorholz, fill an area south of

, northwest of

Bad Salzdetfurth is a town on the banks of the River Lamme in the district of Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography The municipality includes the town itself, and 12 civil parishes (''Ortsteile'') which were incorporated in 1974: * Bodenburg * Brein ...

, north of Sibbesse and southeast of

Nordstemmen Nordstemmen is a village and a municipality in the district of Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Leine, approx. 10 km west of Hildesheim, and 25 km south of Hannover. Subdivision Besides Nordstemmen pro ...

Description

The Hildesheim Forest, which attain a height of 359 m in the Griesberg, are crossed by numerous

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

hiking trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. The ...

s and forest tracks, but only by one state road, the L 485, which links Hildesheim via Diekholzen to Sibbesse. In its northwestern part is the Beusterburg, whose

circular rampart A circular rampart (German: ''Ringwall'') is an embankment built in the shape of a circle that was used as part of the defences for a military fortification, hill fort or refuge, or was built for religious purposes or as a place of gathering. The ...

s are suggestive of a

New Stone Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

settlement. In the vicinity of the village of Betheln there is a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

burial site (''Hügelgräberfeld''). Further away from the village there is also a number of brine springs. At the northern end of the Hildesheim Forest is the Heyersum Saltworks (''Saline Heyersum''). In addition there is a

transmission tower A transmission tower, also known as an electricity pylon or simply a pylon in British English and as a hydro tower in Canadian English, is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. In electrical ...

on the Griesberg and several

observation tower An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, an ...

s. A section of the

Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway The Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway was the first of several high-speed railway lines for InterCityExpress traffic that were built in Germany. While technically starting in the village of Rethen and ending at Würzburg Hauptbahnhof, it i ...

runs through the Hildesheim Forest through three tunnels (see the section on ‘hills’), over bridges and on stretches of open line.

Hills

Amongst the

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not a ...

s and

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

s of the Hildesheim Forest are the following:
(the tunnels mentioned through 3 of the hills belong to the

)

Waterways

These are some of the streams that rise in the Hildesheim Forest: * Despe (eastern tributary of the

) * Gehlenbach (western tributary of the Lamme) * Kalte Beuster (right and southeastern source stream of the Beuster) * Klusbach (western tributary of the Lamme) * Warme Beuster (left and northwestern source stream of the Beuster) The following waterways flow past the Hildesheim Forest: * Alme (tributary of the Riehe) *

(tributary of the Leine) * Lamme (tributary of the Innerste) *

(tributary of the Aller) * Riehe (tributary of the Lamme) * Trillkebach (tributary of the Innerste)

Settlements

Town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

s and

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

s in and around the Hildesheim Forest: {{Coord, 52, 5, , N, 9, 54, , E, type:mountain_elevation:359_region:DE-NI_dim:10000 Forests and woodlands of Lower Saxony Hildesheim (district) Hill ranges of Lower Saxony Natural regions of the Weser-Leine Uplands