The Schnee Eifel is a heavily wooded landscape in Germany's
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").) ...
, up to ,
that forms part of the western
Eifel
The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...
in the area of the German-Belgian border. The name may have been derived in the 19th century from the
Schneifel chain of hills, which had nothing to do with snow (''Schnee''), but with the name for a forest swathe (''Schneise'').
Geography
The Schnee Eifel natural region is formed by the southern part of the
Hohes Venn-Eifel Nature Park. To the north it is bounded by the river
Kyll, the border with the
North Eifel, that begins near
Hallschlag and
Kronenburg with the
Zitter Forest; To the east the Kyll forms the boundary river with the
High Eifel. To the south, the Schnee Eifel merges into the
South Eifel to
Pronsfeld
Pronsfeld is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western 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 ...
in the
Prümer Land. Its highest elevation is found on the
Schneifel ridge: the high
Schwarzer Mann ("Black Man").
The term ''Schneifel'' is frequently employed in publications to mean the whole Schnee Eifel region, but they are not synonymous. The
Schneifel is the uninhabited central chain of hills in the Schnee-Eifel; whose coverage goes beyond the narrow definition of the Schneifel and includes the southern source region of the
Kyll and its upper reaches as well as the adjoining Prüm Forest southeast of the main crest.
The largest town in the Schnee Eifel is
Prüm
Prüm () is a town in the Westeifel (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany. Formerly a district capital, today it is the administrative seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Prüm (Verbandsgemeinde), Prüm.
Geography
Prüm lies o ...
, which lies on the river of the same name. Its well-known
ski areas are the ''Schwarze Mann'' and the ''Wolfsschlucht''. They lie about northwest and north of Prüm respectively.
Geology
Much of the Eifel belongs to the
Rhine Massif. The Schnee Eifel, and in particular, the
Schneifel, its highest region, is a
truncated upland, the stumps of once great mountains that were formed by
Hercynian folding during the
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...
period of geological history. After a long period of severe
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...
they were uplifted again in the
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...
period. Scattered areas of old rock with smooth relief still exist, although they are sometimes hard to discern. Rougher highlands stand out from this base, especially in the north (''Prümer Land''), owing to the hardness of their rocks, like the
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...
ridge of the Schneifel. This long, sinewy ridge juts out above the less jagged, old plateau by around 100 metres and is clear evidence of the resistance of the local quartz rock to the forces of weathering.
It is remarkable for its length of against an average width of just . With little variation in height, it runs from
Brandscheid as far as
Ormont near
Stadtkyll, where it ends at the Steinberg (654 m).
Fauna
Due to its remote location, the ''Schnee-Eifel'' is undeveloped, where rare plants and animals may be found, including the
wildcat
The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while th ...
and, for several years now, the
Eurasian lynx
The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is one of the four wikt:extant, extant species within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. It is widely distributed from Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe to Cent ...
.
Fiction
The hamlet of
Winterspelt is the setting for the novel of the same name by
Alfred Andersch
Alfred Hellmuth Andersch (; 4 February 1914 – 21 February 1980) was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany, and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. ...
, which takes place in the final months of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
See also
*
West Eifel,
Belgian Eifel,
North Eifel,
South Eifel,
Vulkan Eifel,
Rur Eifel,
Hohes Venn
*
Basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
,
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...
References
External links
List of holiday resortsSchneifel - Schwarzer Mann
{{Authority control
Regions of the Eifel
Landscapes of Rhineland-Palatinate