Rheinland Nature Park (''Naturpark Rheinland'') is a nature park in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

, situated between Bergheim, Kerpen,

Erftstadt Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brüh ...

Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating back over 700 years, having been granted to ...

Königswinter Königswinter ( ksh, Köningkswinte; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at t ...

, Bornheim,

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, Brühl,

Hürth Hürth is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Hürth shares borders with the city of Cologne and is about 6 km to the southwest of Cologne city centre, at the northeastern slope of the natural preserve Kott ...

, Frechen and Pulheim. It covers an area of about 880 km².

Ville-Seen-Platte

Roughly translated, this would be the 'plateau of lakes in the Ville'. In the vicinity of Erftstadt, Brühl and Hürth many small and large lakes have been created due to

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

. The reforestation of the area was begun in 1920 by planting beech,

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

and

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

trees. Today, there are about forty lakes that have sprung from the mining operations. List of lakes on the ''Villen-Seen-Platte'': * Concordia See * Köttinger See * Zieselsmaarsee * Villesee * Dinnendahlsee * Liblarer See * Forellenteich * Obersee * Mittelsee * Untersee * Bleibtreusee * Silbersee * Heider Bergsee * Gruhlsee * Margarethenweier * Schluchtsee * Franziskussee * Karauschenweiher * Teich * Donatussee * Zwillingssee * Entenweiher * Villenhofer Maar * Pfingsdorfer See * Fasanenweiher * Forsthausweiher * Lucretiasee * Berggeistsee * Gotteshülfeteich * Otto-Maiglersee * Waldsee * Klärteich

External links

Naturpark Rheinland
(German) Nature parks in North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland {{Europe-protected-area-stub