The Hortenkopf is a hill, 606 metres above
sea level (NN), in 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 ...
, which lies in the middle of the
Palatine Forest between
Hofstätten and
Leimen. The Hortenkopf is recognisable from a long way off thanks to the transmission tower that has been erected on its summit.
Geography and access
The hill is part of the
Frankenweide, a centrally-located
massif
In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...
within this range of low mountains. The
Palatine Watershed runs over its summit. The Hortenkopf is the second southernmost of a row of four peaks that reach a height of over 600 metres. To the south is the
Weißenberg (610 m) near the hamlet of
Hermersbergerhof in the municipality of
Wilgartswiesen. To the north are the
Mosisberg and the
Eschkopf (jeweils 609 m). From the Hortenkopf it is possible to walk to
Leimen,
Kaiserslautern-Mölschbach,
Elmstein
Elmstein is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Elmstein lies in the Palatinate ...
and via the forest lodges of Taubensuhl and Heldenstein almost as far as
Neustadt on continuous hill ridges without dropping below the 450 metre
contour line
A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional grap ...
.
At the Hortenkopf the main watershed turns southwest towards
Gräfenstein Castle. On the southwestern flank of the Hortenkopf rises the northern headstream of the
Wieslauter, which - subsequently as the ''Lauter'' – flows directly into the
River Rhine. Further northwest rises a tributary of the
Merzalbe
The Merzalbe, also called the Merzalb, is a stream, over long, in the Western Palatinate in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is an orographically right tributary of the Rodalb. In its upper reaches it is also called Mühlgraben.
Cou ...
, whose waters flow via the
Rodalb
The Rodalb, also called the Rodalbe, is a stream, just under long, in West Palatinate in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is an orographically left tributary of the Schwarzbach.
Course
The Rodalb rises in the southwestern Palatin ...
,
Schwarzbach,
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.
References
External links
*{{Commonscat-inline, Hortenkopf
Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate
Mountains and hills of the Palatinate Forest
Merzalben