Pfälzer Bergland

The term Pfälzer Bergland (Palatinate Uplands) does not actually exist in this form, it is a colloquial simplification. We are referring to the hills of the historic Palatinate and the Saarland between the Rhine Valley and the Saar river basin. Germany’s official natural regions, which we largely follow, actually have three distinguished names for this area. These are the Pfälzerwald (Palatinate Forest), the Pfälzisch-Saarländisches Muschelkalkgebiet (Palatinate-Saarland Muschelkalk area) and the Saar-Nahe-Bergland. All three regions are geographically and also geologically similar, a hilly landscape that actually belongs to the South German Scarplands, but does not have such characteristic escarpments as east of the Rhine. The rocks are Mesozoic sediments, often limestone, eg the Muschelkalk, but also sandstone and marl. They are broken up into small sections by deep river valleys, so they are referred to as hills rather than plateaus. The highest of these is the Donnersberg (686 metres asl).

Despite the occurrence of limestone, karstification is rather low; we have almost exclusively show mines and bunkers to list. The latter is a result of the proximity to the French border, which caused the construction of a variety of fortifications around the World Wars. They are therefore less a result of the geology and more of history, belonging to the Westwall and Maginot Line. However, we have split up the low mountain range landscape in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate and in Saarland. There is a separate page for Region Saarland around Saarbrücken. This is different from the natural region classification and based on the fact that this area has an outstanding history as an industrial centre, which makes it necessary to look at it separately.