Göttingen Forest
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The Göttingen Forest () is a ridge in Germany's
Central Uplands The Central UplandsDickinson (1964), p.18 ff. (N.B. In German die ''Mittelgebirge'' (plural) refers to the Central Uplands; das ''Mittelgebirge'' refers to a low mountain range or upland region (''Mittel'' = "medium" and ''-gebirge'' = "range").) ...
that is up to 427.5 metres high. It forms part of the
Lower Saxon Hills The Lower Saxon Hills () are one of the 73 natural regions in Germany defined by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). Geographically it covers roughly the same area as the Weser Uplands () in its wider sense.However at least one sour ...
in
South Lower Saxony South Lower Saxony () refers to the southern part of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. The region so described is neither historically nor geographically clearly defined to the north within Lower Saxony. It cuts across the more obviously d ...
.


Geography

The Göttingen Forest, which is divided into numerous separate woods, is found in the south of the
Leine Uplands The Leine Uplands (, ) is a region in Germany's Central Uplands which forms a part of the Lower Saxon Hills and lies along the River Leine between Göttingen and Hanover. It borders on the Weser Uplands in the west, the Innerste Uplands in th ...
, which is in turn part of the Lower Saxon Hills. It lies in the district of
Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
east of the city of
Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
itself, immediately south of the Nörten Forest, west of the Untereichsfeld and north of the Reinhausen Forest with its twin peaks, Die Gleichen. The Göttingen Forest, Nörten Forest and Reinhausen Forest each form part of the Göttingen-Northeim Forest. Several kilometres to the northeast is the ridge of Rotenberg and, beyond that, the
Harz Mountains The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The nam ...
. Northwest of the Göttingen Forest is the Bovenden, north-northwest is
Nörten-Hardenberg Nörten-Hardenberg ( Eastphalian: ''Nörten-Harenbarg'') is a municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography It is situated on the river Leine, approx. 10 km southwest of Northeim, and 10 km north of ...
, to the north is Billingshausen, northeast is
Ebergötzen Ebergötzen is a village in the District of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is 15 km from Göttingen and belongs to the Samtgemeinde Radolfshausen. As of December 2020, Ebergötzen has 1,927 inhabitants. Ebergötzen is known as the pl ...
, east is Landolfshausen, southeast is
Gleichen Gleichen () is the name of two groups of castles in Germany, thus named from their resemblance to each other (). Castles in Thuringia between Gotha and Erfurt The first is a group of three (hence called "die drei hreeGleichen"), each situated o ...
and southwest and west is the city of Göttingen. The Göttingen Forest lies south of the Rodebach valley, a few kilometres west of the Seeburger See lake, north of the valleys of the
Garte The Garte is a small tributary to the Leine River in Lower Saxony, Germany. The Garte is a long stream that rises to the east of Weißenborn at an elevation of . Towns that it runs through or by include Beienrode, Kerstlingerode, Rittmarshaus ...
and Bramke and several kilometres east of that of the River
Leine The Leine (; Old Saxon ''Lagina'') is a river in Thuringia and Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Aller and the Weser and is long. The river's source is located close to the town of Leinefelde in Thuringia. About downriver ...
. The Göttingen Forest is bounded to the north, east and south predominantly by steep hillsides. The exact boundary of the forest is, however, not always uniformly defined. For example, on the one hand, many define it in a narrow sense as only that part south of the B 27 excluding the Plessforst,August Deppe, Heinrich Troe: ''Der Göttinger Wald und seine Umgebung''. Göttingen 1956, p. 8–12 on the other hand, others refer to the climbing region of Göttingen Forest, an area also including those woods to the north, east and south.


Geology

The
bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...
of the Göttingen Forest area is mainly made up of layers of middle
Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...
Muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; ) is a sequence of sedimentary rock, sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 m ...
. In the incisions made by the Lutter and Braten valleys there are deposits from the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
and
Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...
epochs. The largest and highest-lying part of the forest, namely the plateau-like areas of the northern Plessforst from the Hünstollen to
Plesse Castle Plesse Castle is situated to the north of Göttingen in Germany, close to the village of Bovenden. History The castle was transferred in 1015 from the private estate of Meinwerk, bishop of Paderborn to the city of Paderborn. Since 1150 it is ...
and the eastern part from the Lengderburg in the south via the Mackenröder Spitze to the Södderich, are characterised by layers of Lower Muschelkalk, whilst Trochitenkalk and Ceratite layers of the Upper Muschelkalk are the predominant formations found in the central and western part of the forest that has undergone greater movement. Middle Muschelkalk is found in the transition areas. In the Lange Nacht region and the adjacent slopes of the Kleper there is an elongated trough of upper Triassic
Keuper The Keuper is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Keuper consists of dolomite, shales or claystones and evaporites that were deposited during the Middle and Lat ...
, and individual pockets of the Lower Keuper are also found in the southern part of the Göttingen Forest. To the north, east and south, regions of
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
border on the forest. In the west there are
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
silts and finally the
Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...
water meadow
loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...
of the Leine valley.Ulrich Nagel, Hans-Georg Wunderlich: ''Geologisches Blockbild der Umgebung von Göttingen''. Göttingen–Hannover 1976 Many old quarries are located in the Trochitenkalk and Lower Muschelkalk in which
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
, the main building material for nearby settlements, was obtained. By contrast, the more thinly bedded and very brittle layers were just used as hard core for road building or to reinforce dirt tracks. The limestone areas of the Lower and Upper Muschelkalk are mostly covered with just a thin layer of humus which, even when weathered, do not support very fertile agricultural soils. Settlements were therefore established almost entirely in the areas where Middle Muschelkalk occurs which is also where several small springs rise. In the lower Triassic
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 ...
region of the Reinhausen Forest to the south there is the largest abri group (rock overhangs caused by erosion) in Central Europe. They are often found in the narrowest part of the ravine-like rocky valleys between the River Leine and the Eichsfeld. In a region of around 30 by 6-10 kilometres there are today around 1600 abris. The sandstone in this area has been quarried for a long time.


Hills

The hills and high points of the Göttingen Forest include:


Sources

* Ulrich Nagel und Hans-Georg Wunderlich: ''Geologisches Blockbild der Umgebung von Göttingen'' (publications by the Lower Saxon Institute for Geography and Regional Development, Series A, Vol. 91, 2nd ed.), 50 pp. + enclosures, Göttingen, 1976


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottingen Forest Central Uplands Hill ranges of Lower Saxony Forests and woodlands of Lower Saxony Geography of Lower Saxony Göttingen Natural regions of the Weser-Leine Uplands