The Kiffing is a range of hills, relatively small in area and up to , in the district of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

in the German state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

Geography

The Kiffing hills in the extreme north of Hesse belong to the southern ranges of the

Weser Uplands The Weser Uplands (German: ''Weserbergland'', ) is a hill region in Germany, between Hannoversch Münden and Porta Westfalica, along the river Weser. The area reaches into three states, Lower Saxony, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia. Important ...

. They are located between the southern foothills of the

Solling The Solling () is a range of hills up to high in the Weser Uplands in the German state of Lower Saxony, whose extreme southerly foothills extend into Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. Inside Lower Saxony it is the second largest range of hills ...

in the north and the northern foothills of the Bramwald in the south. To the northeast and north they are passed by the lower reaches of the river

Schwülme The Schwülme is a river of Lower Saxony and Hesse, Germany. It is long and a right-hand and eastern tributary of the Weser. See also *List of rivers of Lower Saxony *List of rivers of Hesse A list of rivers of Hesse, Germany: A *Aar, tribu ...

, to the southwest and west by a stretch of the Upper Weser, beyond whose western banks looms the

Reinhardswald The Reinhardswald () is a range of hills up to and covering an area of over 200 km²
in the

. The Kiffing lies between

Wahlsburg Wahlsburg was a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It consisted of the two parts Lippoldsberg and Vernawahlshausen, and was located north of Kassel and northwest of Göttingen. On January 1, 2020, Wahlsburg merged with ...

to the northwest,

Uslar Uslar (; Eastphalian: ''Üsseler'') is a town and a municipality in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, in the south-western part of the district of Northeim, and in the south of the hills of Solling forest which are part of the Weser Uplands. Uslar ...

to the northeast and

Oberweser Oberweser was a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It was located north of Kassel and northwest of Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital ...

to the south.

Landscape description

The Kiffing, which attains at height of up to 344.1 m at the Heuberg, and whose eastern section belongs to the State Forest of

Bad Karlshafen Bad Karlshafen () is a baroque, thermal salt spa town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It has 2300 inhabitants in the main ward of Bad Karlshafen, and a further 1900 in the medieval village of Helmarshausen. It is situated at the co ...

, is a heavily wooded region, apart from its western and northeastern foothills. In the north, above and to the southeast of the Pfeiffengrund valley, is the

Lippoldsberg Wahlsburg was a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It consisted of the two parts Lippoldsberg and Vernawahlshausen, and was located north of Kassel and northwest of Göttingen. On January 1, 2020, Wahlsburg merged with ...

Clinic and Rehabilitation Centre. In the northeast above the Köhlergrund valley is the small ''Steinklippen'' and in the east, at the so-called ''Sattel'', is a small

rifle range A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by military o ...

Hills

The

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct Summit (topography), summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally con ...

s and elevations of the Kiffing range include:

Streams

The streams in and around the Kiffing include the: * Föhrenbach (tributary of the Weser) * Höllengraben (tributary of the Weser) * Rodenbach (tributary of the Schwülme) *

(tributary of the Weser) *

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of Bre ...

(river running into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

)

Towns and villages

The towns and villages located around the Kiffing are: *

(

) in the northwest * Vernawahlshausen (Wahlsburg) in the north * Ahlbershausen (

) in the east-northeast * Arenborn (

) in the east * Heisebeck (Oberweser) in the southeast * Fürstenhagen (zu Uslar) in the south-southeast * Oedelsheim (Oberweser) in the south * Gieselwerder (Oberweser) in the southwest

Literature and sources

The information in this article is based on: * ''Topografische Freizeitkarte "Naturpark Habichtswald / Reinhardswald" ('TF 50-HR', 1:50.000; 2003), herausgegeben vom 'Hessisch-Waldeckischen Gerbirgs- und Heimatverein eV.' und 'Hessischen Landesvermessungsamt () * ''Rad- u. Wanderkarte "Reinhardswald, Weserlauf u. Bramwald" (1:33.333), herausgegeben vom Geo-Verlag (Kaufungen)'' {{Coord, 51, 36, 30, N, 9, 36, 01, E, type:mountain_elevation:344.1_region:DE-HE, display=title Kassel (district) Forests and woodlands of Hesse Regions of Hesse