The Sickingen Heights (german: Sickinger Höhe) form a
landscape in the
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
part of the German state of
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 ...
. The region was named after the family of imperial knight,
Franz von Sickingen (1481–1523), because most of the area belonged to the territory of the
House of Sickingen
The House of Sickingen is an old southwest German noble family. The lords of Sickingen belonged to the Kraichgau nobility and from 1797 to the Imperial nobility. Significant relatives emerged from the family, who achieved great influence in both ...
in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
.
Geography
Location
The Sickingen Heights form the northern part of the
Westrich Plateau; about a third of the area within the county of
Kaiserslautern and two-thirds in the county of
Südwestpfalz
Südwestpfalz is a district (''Kreis'' or more precise ''Landkreis'') in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Saarpfalz, the district-free city Zweibrücken, the districts Kaiserslautern and ...
. It extends from Sickingen's town of
Landstuhl
Landstuhl () is a town in the Kaiserslautern district of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is the seat of ''Verbandsgemeinde Landstuhl'', a kind of "collective municipality." Landstuhl is situated on the north-west edge of the Palatinate F ...
in the north almost to the town of
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.
Name
The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...
in the south and from the border between Rhineland-Palatinate and the
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
in the west to the
Palatinate Forest in the east.
Geology
The Sickingen Heights belong to the major region known as the Palatine-Saarland Muschelkalk Region (''Pfälzisch-Saarländisches Muschelkalkgebiet'').
The hilly plateau, which lies at heights from 300 to descends very steeply in the north in several, densely wooded, escarpments to the
Landstuhl Marsh. Numerous small and medium-sized rock formations from the
bunter sandstone of the
Karlstal
The Karlstal is the valley of the Moosalb (Schwarzbach), Moosalb stream located near Trippstadt in the Palatine Forest in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is registered as a nature reserves of Germany, nature reserve - number 335  ...
beds outcrop along the
escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...
, for example the ''Heidenfelsen'' near
Hauptstuhl, the eponymous rocks near Bärenloch in
Kindsbach or the rock landscape in the ''Fleischackerloch'' near Landstuhl. Somewhat less rugged in appearance is the plateau's westward transition to the Saarland and even less than that in the east, where the valley of the
Moosalb forms the boundary. In the south the Sickingen Heights transition almost seamlessly into the
Zweibrücken Hills.
Rivers and streams
Much of the Sickingen Heights is drained southwards by the Moosalb,
Wallhalb and
Auerbach into the
Schwarzbach and then via the
Blies
The Blies () is a right tributary of the Saar in southwestern Germany (Saarland) and northeastern France (Moselle). The Blies flows from three springs in the Hunsrück near Selbach, Germany. It is roughly 100 km long, ending in the French c ...
,
Saar
Saar or SAAR has several meanings:
People Given name
*Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player
* Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist
*Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor
Surname
* Ain Saar (born 1968), Est ...
and
Moselle into the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
. The
Lambsbach flows westwards directly into the Blies.
Sights and culture
* In the old schoolhouse at
Queidersbach, built in 1836, is the Sickingen Heights Museum (''Museum Sickinger Höhe''). Opened in 1976 and covering an area of 500 m
2, the museum offers an overview of history of the region from early times until the recent past.
* In 1869, the
Krähenberg Meteorite fell in the
eponymous parish. At the site of the impact there is a commemorative stone with an information board about the event,
[ Pfälzischer Merkur: ] Since 2009 the Meteorite Trail (
Winterbach–Krähenberg–
Kleinbundenbach–
Großbundenbach–
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.
Name
The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...
) has been established as a themed walk.
Landkreis Südwestpfalz
In all German states, except for the three city states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a ''Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the (official term in all but two states) or (official term in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia a ...
, ILE
Ile may refer to:
* iLe, a Puerto Rican singer
* Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places
* Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria
* Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language
* Isoleucine, an amino acid
* Anothe ...
:
* In
Herschberg every two years, the
Wallhaben collective municipality hosts the Sickingen Dialect Poetry Competition (''Sickinger Mundartdichter-Wettstreit'').
[ Menüpunkt "Mundart"]
Settlement and transportation
The land is sparsely settled and the only large towns occur on the lower-lying perimeter of the plateau. There are no pan-regional transport routes, except for a mostly two-lane section of the
A 62 motorway Landstuhl–
Pirmasens
Pirmasens (; pfl, Bärmesens (also ''Bermesens'' or ''Bärmasens'')) is an independent town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It was famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called ''Lan ...
.
Due to its remoteness, the region is well suited for hiking e.g. along the Mill Trail in the Wallhalb Valley. Over the Sickingen Heights runs the waymarked
North Route of the Palatine sections of the historic
Way of St. James.
References
{{Coord, 49, 19, 32, N, 7, 30, 36, E, type:landmark_dim:24000_region:DE-RP, display=title
Geography of the Palatinate (region)
Natural regions of the Palatinate Forest