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 m², 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–

) 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