The Innerste Uplands () is a

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

region up to 359 m high and covering an area of over 900 km² in the northern part of the German

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").) ...

. It lies within the eastern part of the

Weser-Leine Uplands 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 sourc ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

(

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

). The Innerste Uplands gets its name from the

Innerste The Innerste () is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Leine river and in length. Origin of the name The river name is not related to the German word ''innerste'' meaning innermost. ''Innerste'', in earlier time ...

, a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

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 ...

Geography

Location

The Innerste Uplands cover the

catchment area A catchment area in human geography, is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

of the Innerste southeast of

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of t ...

and southwest to south of

Salzgitter Salzgitter (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Soltgitter'') is an independent city#Germany, independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitte ...

as far as

Goslar Goslar (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Goslar (district), district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern wikt:slope, slopes of the Harz ...

and

Seesen Seesen () is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx. west of Goslar. History The Saxon settlement of ''Sehusa'' was first mentio ...

on the northwestern edge of the

Harz The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a 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 name ''Harz'' der ...

. To the north the area is bounded by the

Hildesheim Börde The Hildesheim Börde ( or ''Braunschweig-Hildesheimer Lössbörde'') is a natural region, 272 km2 in area, in the northern part of Hildesheim district, which is known for its especially rich black earth loess soil. Location The '' börde'' l ...

, to the west by 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 ...

and to the southeast by the North

Harz Foreland The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a 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 name ''Harz'' der ...

. Its central and southern areas are dominated by the Ambergau, a depression dissected by the Nette, a tributary of the Innerste. In and around the Innerste Uplands there are the following clearly defined ridges, most of which are

cuesta A cuesta () is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. In geology, the term is more specifically applied to a ridge where a harder sedimentary rock overlies a softer layer, the whole being tilted somew ...

s and some of which lie on the boundary with neighbouring landscape regions (listed in alphabetical order): Giesen Hills, Hainberg, Harplage, Heber,

Hildesheim Forest The Hildesheim Forest () is a range of hills up to in the district of Hildesheim in the German state of Lower Saxony. Geography The Hildesheim Forest is located in the Innerste Uplands, part of the Lower Saxon Hills, between the valleys of ...

, Salzgitter Ridge (including the

Lichtenberge The Salzgitter Hills (, also ''Salzgitterscher Höhenzug'') is an area of upland up to in height, in the Lower Saxon Hills between Salzgitter and Goslar in the districts of Landkreis Wolfenbüttel, Wolfenbüttel and Landkreis Goslar, Goslar and i ...

Sauberge The Sauberge is a hill range up to in the Innerste Uplands in the district of Landkreis Hildesheim, Hildesheim in eastern Lower Saxony in Germany. Geography Location The wooded Sauberge is located in the centre of the northern part of the I ...

and

Vorholz The Vorholz is a ridge up to 243 m high in the districts of Landkreis Hildesheim, Hildesheim and Landkreis Wolfenbüttel, Wolfenbüttel in the German state of Lower Saxony. Geography The heavily-wooded Vorholz is located in the north of the ...

. Between these ridges run the following

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

Lamme Lamme is a river of Lower Saxony, Germany. It flows into the Innerste near Bad Salzdetfurth. In 1945 the river was crossed by Allied Forces. See also *List of rivers of Lower Saxony All rivers in the German state of Lower Saxony flow directly ...

, Neile and Nette together with their tributaries.

Description

The ridges of the Innerste Uplands are predominantly covered with

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

, particularly

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

woods. The rivers run through gently rolling depressions, covered with a thick layer of

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

; this includes the basin of the Ambergau. The fertile soils are heavily used for arable farming. Also part of the landscape are quarries or open-cast mines, nowadays largely closed and sometimes filled with water, in which

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 ...

sandstone was extracted during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Hills and mountains

Eight ridges belong to the Innerste Uplands. They are, in order of height: The highest elevation in the Innerste Uplands is the 359 m high

Griesberg At the Griesberg near Bad Salzdetfurth in the Lower Saxony, Lower Saxon country of Landkreis Hildesheim, Hildesheim is the highest hill in the Hildesheim Forest, a small range of the Innerste Uplands. Geography Location The Griesberg is loc ...

in the Hildesheim Forest.

Rivers

The rivers of the Innerste Uplands are: * Alme - in the west, of the Riehe * Beuster - in the northwest, tributary of the Innerste *

- in the north, northeast and east, tributary of the Leine *

- in the west, tributary of the Innerste * Neile - in the central southeast, tributary of the Innerste * Nette - in the centre (Ambergau), tributary of the Innerste * Riehe - in the west, tributary of the Lamme

Towns and villages

The following towns and villages lie within the Innerste Uplands or around its edge:

External links

Gerhard Meier-Hilbert: Geographical Structures (of Hildesheimer Land)
(pdf file; 1,03 MB)
Landscape fact file
by the

Bundesamt für Naturschutz The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (, ''BfN'') is the German government's scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. BfN is one of the government's departmental research agencies an ...

(with map) {{Coord, 52, 01, N, 10, 07, E, type:mountain_elevation:359_region:DE-NI_dim:25000, display=title Regions of Lower Saxony Central Uplands Hill ranges of Lower Saxony !Innerste Uplands