The Eschkopf near Hofstätten in 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 ...

(

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 B ...

county) is a major hill, high in the Palatine Forest.

Location

The Eschkopf is part of the Frankenweide, a rock

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

in the centre of the Palatine Forest. The main Palatine Watershed runs over its summit, which rises about 3.4 km south of the village of Hofstätten (Südwestpfalz county) and 3.6 km (both

as the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel '' Oliv ...

) south-southeast of the hamlet of

Johanniskreuz Johanniskreuz is a tiny hamlet in the middle of the Palatine Forest in Germany and belongs to the municipality of Trippstadt in the district of Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Geography Location Johanniskreuz lies in ...

in the neighbouring county of

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfu ...

. The hill is the northernmost of a line of four peaks that exceed 600 m. To the south, in sequence, are the

Mosisberg The Mosisberg near Hofstätten in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Südwestpfalz county) is a hill, , in the central Palatine Forest. It has two domes, the eastern one is the summit and is called ''Langer Kopf'' and the western high poin ...

(608.9 m), the Hortenkopf (606.2 m) and the

Weißenberg Weißenberg (German) or Wóspork (Upper Sorbian) is a town in the district of Bautzen, in Saxony, Germany. The Upper Lusatian town has approximately 3100 inhabitants and is part of the recognized Sorbian settlement area in Saxony. Geography W ...

(ca. 610 m). From the Eschkopf it is possible to walk to Leimen, Kaiserslautern-Mölschbach,

Elmstein Elmstein is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Elmstein lies in the Palatinat ...

and via the forester's lodges of Taubensuhl and Heldenstein almost as far as

Neustadt an der Weinstraße Neustadt an der Weinstraße (, formerly known as ; lb, Neustadt op der Wäistrooss ; pfl, Naischdadt) is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,300 inhabitants , it is the largest town called ''Neustadt''. Geography Location T ...

on continuous hill ridges without dropping below the 450

metre The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its p ...

contour line A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional gra ...

References

{{GeoQuelle, DE-RP, LANDIS-Karte, REF-NAME="LANDIS-Karte" Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate Mountains and hills of the Palatinate Forest