The Hellweg Börde (German: ''Hellwegbörde'') is a '' börde'' landscape and

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

on the southern edge of the

Westphalian Lowland The Westphalian Lowland, also known as the Westphalian Basin is a flat landscape that mainly lies within the German region of Westphalia, although small areas also fall within North Rhine (in the extreme southwest) and in Lower Saxony (on the no ...

in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, which embraces the old

Hellweg In the Middle Ages, Hellweg was the official and common name given to main travelling routes in Germany. Their breadth was decreed as an unimpeded passageway a lance's width, about three metres, which the landholders, through which the Hellweg pa ...

trading route cities and towns of

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

Unna Unna () is a city of around 59,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the seat of the Unna (district), Unna district. The newly refurbished Unna station has trains to all major cities in North Rhine Westphalia including Dortmund, Köln H ...

Werl The pilgrimage town Werl (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Wiärl'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia and belongs to the Soest, Germany, Soest district in the Arnsberg administrative district. The official name of pilgrimage town has been ...

and Soest extending to

Salzkotten Salzkotten () is a town in the district of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name Salzkotten (in English, "Salt cottages") is based in the former salt production, which gave Salzkotten its wikt:raison d'être, raison d'être. Salt ...

and from there in an ever narrower strip to its northeastern tip at Schlangen on the edge of the town of Bad Lippspringe. It is characterised by its heavy deposits of post ice age loess soils. The region can be further divided into the Werl-Unna Börde, Soest Börde and Geseke Börde. In the west the loess soils of the Hellweg Börde continue into the

Westenhellweg Westenhellweg is the main shopping street in Dortmund, Germany. With nearly 13,000 visitors per hour it was Germany's most frequented shopping street in 2013. References

Shopping districts and streets in Germany {{NorthRhineWestphalia- ...

region.

History

By the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

(around 4,000 B.C.) grain was already being cultivated here on the fertile, calcareous land. The oldest trace of a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

culture was the discovery of pottery from the La Hoguette Culture dating to the middle of the 6th millennium B.C.

Sources

Hellwegbörde article on German Wikipedia Regions of North Rhine-Westphalia Cultural landscapes of North Rhine-Westphalia {{NorthRhineWestphalia-geo-stub

History

See also

Sources