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18-683: The nature park, which consists of the Arnsberg Forest in the west and the Warstein Forest in the east, is important for the regional economy both in terms of forestry and tourism. The two forests form a densely wooded part of the Süder Uplands within the Rhine Massif . The Arnsberg Forest Nature Park lies between the river Möhne in the north, on which the Möhne Reservoir is located, and

36-662: Is also worth visiting as are the observation towers of Lörmecke Tower (near the highest point in the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park between Warstein and Eversberg ), the Küppel Tower (near Meschede-Freienohls) and the Delecke Bismarck Tower (north of Möhnesee-Delecke). Many trails wind through the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park and its hills and valleys. The best known are the Upland Trail (no. "X 13") and

54-617: Is drained centrally, south to north by the river Rhine and a few of its tributaries. West of the indent of the Cologne Bight it has the Eifel and the Belgian and French Ardennes ; east is its greatest German component, the Süder Uplands . The Hunsrück hills form its southwest. The Westerwald is an eastern strip. The Lahn - Dill area is a small central zone and the Taunus Mountains form

72-705: Is surrounded by the High Fens and the Eifel to the west of the Rhine and by the uplands of Bergisches Land to the east of the Rhine. In the south and southeast the rising Rhine Massif, visible from far off by the silhouette of the Siebengebirge , surround the head of the bight at Königswinter . To the northwest the Cologne Bight opens out into the valleys of the Rhine and the Meuse , in

90-634: The Cologne Bay or, less commonly, the Cologne Bight ( German : Kölner Bucht ), is a densely populated area of Germany lying between the cities of Bonn , Aachen , and Düsseldorf / Neuss . It is situated in the southwest of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and forms the natural southern conclusion of the Lower Rhenish lowlands and the transition to the Rhenish Massif ( Rheinische Schiefergebirge or "Rhenish Slate Mountains"). The Cologne Bight

108-646: The Hunsrück , and the Westerwald . Where the water flowed slowly (in the shallow water zones), clay was left behind; where it flowed fast, sand and gravel settled. The shores of the North Sea in those days occasionally reached up to where the cities of Aachen, Erkelenz , and Mönchengladbach are today. The Cologne Lowland is also seismically active today. The region is characterised by its agriculture (with orchards and truck farms ), by open-pit lignite mining, by

126-726: The Ruhr and Möhne, which border the forests, as well as other water courses that feed the Möhne and Ruhr: The hills and hilltops of the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park include: the Warsteiner Kopf (556.9 m; fourth-highest hill), the Gemeinheitskopf (551.9 m; fifth-highest hill) the Niekopf (550.4 m; sixth-highest hill) and the Nuttlarer Höhe (542.2 m). These are the best known hills in

144-524: The Renn Trail (no. "X 26"). 51°23′44″N 8°20′46″E  /  51.39556°N 8.34611°E  / 51.39556; 8.34611 Rhine Massif The Rhenish Massif , Rhine Massif or Rhenish Uplands ( German : Rheinisches Schiefergebirge , pronounced [ˈʁaɪnɪʃəs ˈʃiːfɐɡəˌbɪʁɡə] : 'Rhenish Slate Uplands') is a geologic massif in western Germany , eastern Belgium , Luxembourg and northeastern France . It

162-466: The current climatic change . Due to the orographic rainfall on the surrounding mountain ranges the climate is relatively damp as well. In combination with the valuable loess soil , these factors make the Cologne Bight one of the most fertile regions of Germany. About 30 million years ago, parts of the Rhine Massif sank and formed a lowland region. Due to the subtropical climate at that time, there

180-520: The deep valley of the Ruhr in the south. Between these two valleys the park is situated between Möhnesee in the northwest, Rüthen in the northeast, Brilon in the east, Olsberg in the southeast, Meschede in the south and Arnsberg in the southwest; Warstein lies within the nature reserve . To the north is the heavily forested region of the Haarstrang , to the east are the Brilon Heights , to

198-669: The eastern Rhenish Massif some very limited outcrops in the Sauerland show rocks of Ordovician and lower Siliurian age. Further Ordovician rock exposures are part of the southern Taunus . The second rock type are Tertiary and Quaternary igneous rocks , which most prominently occur in the Vulkaneifel , the Westerwald and the Vogelsberg . The volcanic rocks have been linked to a mantle plume that, due to its low density and buoyancy, uplifted

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216-578: The entire region during the last few hundred thousand years, as measured from the present elevation of old river terraces. The mountain and hill ranges within the Rhenish Massif - some with maximum height in metres above sea level (NN) ) are given below: West of the Rhine from north(west) to south(east) East of the Rhine from north(west) to south(east) 51°00′N 7°50′E  /  51.000°N 7.833°E  / 51.000; 7.833 Cologne Bight The Cologne Lowland , also called

234-784: The massif is part of the Rhenohercynian zone of this orogeny, that also encompasses the Harz further east and Devonian rocks of Cornwall (southwestern England ). Most rocks in the Rhenish Massif were originally sediments, mostly deposited during the Devonian and Carboniferous in a back-arc basin called the Rhenohercynian basin . In some places in the Ardennes, even older rocks of Cambrian to Silurian age crop out as massifs overlain by Devonian slates. These older rocks form smaller massifs of their own ( Stavelot , Rocroi , Givonne and Serpont ). In

252-534: The nature park because, unlike the other local heights they are shown on most of the maps and the specialised reference books. There are also, as the following list shows, a number of unnamed hilltops. In or on the edge of the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park are numerous villages belonging to these municipalities and towns: The Bilstein Cave southwest of Warstein in the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park attracts many tourists. The cave of Hohler Stein southwest of Rüthen-Kallenhardts

270-587: The northeast it is bounded by the Münsterländer Kreidebecken (Münster Chalk Basin) of the Westphalian Bight. The Cologne Lowland is among the warmest regions in Germany. While the summers on the upper Rhine are somewhat warmer, winters in the area are so mild that snow remaining on the ground for as much as several days would have been considered rather exceptional in the decades before the onset of

288-584: The rest, the south-east. The massif hosts the Middle Rhine Valley ( Rhine Gorge ), a UNESCO World Heritage site linked to the lowest parts of the Moselle ( German : Mosel , Luxembourgish : Musel ). Geologically the Rhenish Massif consists of metamorphic rocks , mostly slates (hence its German name), deformed and metamorphosed during the Hercynian orogeny (around 300 million years ago). Most of

306-723: The south is the Rothaargebirge , to the southwest is the Lennegebirge and to the west the terrain gradually descends towards Dortmund into the Ruhr . The best-known water feature in the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park is the Möhnesee , set in the Möhne valley between the Haarstrang in the north and the Arnsberg Forest in the south. Numerous rivers run through the wooded valleys. These include

324-456: Was a luxuriant plant growth of abundant varieties. About 15 million years ago, these plants died out and formed a peat layer up to 270 metres thick. From the pressure of earth layers lying over it, the peat was compressed into lignite (brown coal). The predecessor rivers of today's Rhine dug a broad river bed through the rock . These Rhine forerunners brought debris from the Alps , the Eifel ,

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