The Lower Saxon Hills (german: Niedersächsisches Bergland) are one of the 73

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecology, ecological point of view, the naturally occurring fl ...

s in Germany defined by the

Federal Agency for Nature Conservation The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (german: Bundesamt für Naturschutz, ''BfN'') is the German government's scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. BfN is one of the government's ...

(BfN). Geographically it covers roughly the same area as 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 ...

(german: Weserbergland) in its wider sense.However at least one source, Elkins (1968), uses the term to refer to the outcrops of rock to the north, west and southwest of the

Harz 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 ...

which roughly corresponds to the eastern half of the BfN's region and extends only as far as the area between the rivers

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 ...

and

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, t ...

. The region is part of Germany's

Central Uplands The Central UplandsDickinson (1964), p.18 ff. (german: die MittelgebirgeN.B. In German die ''Mittelgebirge'' (plural) refers to the Central Uplands; das ''Mittelgebirge'' refers to a low mountain range or upland region (''Mittel'' = "medium" and ...

with hills ranging up to in height that extend across northeast

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 ...

, southern

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 ...

and northern

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 ...

. It is classified as region number D 36 by the BfN; its full name being the ''Niedersächsisches Bergland (mit Weser- und Leine-Bergland'' (Lower Saxon Hills, including the Weser and Leine Hills). D 36 is a newly defined region that incorporates 3 geographical units from the old system: numbers 36, 37 and 53, and includes all parts of the

(''Weserbergland'') in both its narrower and a wider sense. That said, all three elements of the region, despite their misleading names, cover far more than is generally meant in everyday language or in atlases by the term ''Weserbergland''. In addition the Weser-Leine Hills sub-division (37) includes the whole of 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 ...

(''Leinebergland''), whilst the

mountains, admittedly are only partly in Lower Saxony, are clearly older in

geological time scale The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronol ...

and have been given their own natural region (D37) rather than being grouped with the lower Saxon Hills.

Natural divisions

The following tables show the landscape sub-divisions in the Lower Saxon Hills.
Those regions which are normally considered part of the

in its narrower sense are indicated by (W); similarly the which are normally included in the

are annotated with (L): *37 Weser-Leine Uplands

References

Literature

* * {{Coord, 52, 0, 0, N, 9, 0, 0, E, type:mountain_dim:25000_region:DE, display=title Natural regions of the Central Uplands Central Uplands Regions of Lower Saxony Regions of North Rhine-Westphalia