Pfaelzerwaldkarte Westricher Hochflaeche

The Westrich Plateau (german: Westricher Hochfläche),Helmut Beeger et al.: "Die Landschaften von Rheinhessen-Pfalz − Benennung und räumliche Abgrenzung". In: ''Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde'', Vol. 63, Part 2, Trier, 1989, pp. 327–359 also Zweibrücken Westrich (''Zweibrücker Westrich'')For example in the

Handbuch der naturräumlichen Gliederung Deutschlands The ''Handbook of Natural Region Divisions of Germany'' (german: Handbuch der naturräumlichen Gliederung Deutschlands) was a book series resulting from a project by the former German Federal Institute for Regional Studies ('' Bundesanstalt für La ...

. or Southwest Palatine Plateau (''Südwestpfälzische Hochfläche''), is a

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, with small areas also in the Saarland ( Saarpfalz-Kreis). Its heart is in the southwest of the Palatinate region and it is part of the historic region of

Westrich The Rentals are an American rock band fronted by vocalist Matt Sharp. Sharp has been the only consistent member since the group's inception. The band's best selling single is "Friends of P" (1995). The Rentals released two albums, ''Return of t ...

Geography

Structure and boundaries

The Westrich Plateau consists mainly of the

Sickingen Heights The Sickingen Heights (german: Sickinger Höhe) form a landscape in the western part of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The region was named after the family of imperial knight, Franz von Sickingen (1481–1523), because most of the are ...

in the north and the

Zweibrücken Hills 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 which, morphologically, belong more to northeastern Lorraine in France). The main plateau falls away in a marked

scarp slope An escarpment is a steep slope landform, 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 interchangea ...

, the Sickingen Escarpment, to the northwest (towards the Homburg Basin) and especially to the north, towards the

Landstuhl Marsh The Landstuhl Marsh or Landstuhl Bog (german: (Spesbach-)Landstuhler Bruch , ''Westricher Moorniederung'' or ''Westpfälzische Moorniederung'') is a region in West Palatinate in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. According to the Handbook ...

. By contrast, the eastern edge of the Westrich transitions rather smoothly from its muschelkalk plateau to the

bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...

of the Palatine Forest. The subdivisions of the plateau along the Moosalb and near

Eppenbrunn Eppenbrunn is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany and belongs to the municipal association Pirmasens-Land. Within the municipality is the 1.5 km long bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (Germa ...

also extend into the wooded region of the

Palatine Forest Nature Park The Palatinate Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Pfälzerwald) lies in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany and borders on France. The nature park covers an area of and some 76% of its area is under the woods of the Palatinate Fore ...

. In the east the land gradually descends to the settlement fringe of Pirmasens and the Trualbe, opposite the

Queidersbach Queidersbach is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. Geography The municipality is located 10 km southwest of Kaiserslautern in a natural meadow valley on the western edge of the Pa ...

and the Moosalb valley, which forms the actual eastern boundary. To the south the Zweibrücken Hills continue the plateau into France, and more specifically into the

Bitscherland The Pays de Bitche (, literally ''Land of Bitche'', german: Bitscherland or ) is a natural region located in the Moselle department of the Grand Est region of France. It corresponds to the present French part of the former principality of Zweibrü ...

and the

Alsace bossue The Alsace bossue (Alsatian dialect, Alemannic and Lorraine Franconian, Frankish: ''S'Gromme/S'Krumme Elsass'', German: ''das krumme Elsass/ Krummes Elsass''), is a territory of Bas-Rhin in Alsace, which includes the three former cantons of Sarre-U ...

. The central section of the plateau's western boundary with the

Saint Ingbert-Kirkeler Woods In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

and, further south, with the

Bliesgau The Bliesgau is a region in the state of Saarland in the south-west of Germany and borders with France. It is named after the River Blies, which is a tributary to the Saar. Blieskastel is the principal town of the district. Other towns in the area ...

, runs (according to the ''Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde'', Saarbrücken sheet, and popular opinion) just west of the state border with Saarland and does not cross the valley of the Blies, which from here on forms the boundary with the first-named of the two regions. This compares with a purely Saarland division according to Quasten which also counts a narrow strip of land southwest of Blieskastel (right = west of the Blies) as part of the Zweibrücken Westrich.

References

Literature

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External links

BfN 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' ...

landscape fact file
Sickingen Heights and Zweibrücken Hills
!-- Erroneously under "Zweibrücker Westrich" -->

{{coord missing, Rhineland-Palatinate Landscapes of Rhineland-Palatinate Western Palatinate Natural regions of the South German Scarplands