Pfaelzerwaldkarte Westricher Hochflaeche

The Westrich Plateau (),Helmut Beeger et al.: "Die Landschaften von Rheinhessen-Pfalz − Benennung und räumliche Abgrenzung". In: ''Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde'', Vol. 63, Part 2, Trier, 1989, pp. 327–359 also Zweibrücken Westrich (''Zweibrücker Westrich'')For example in the Handbuch der naturräumlichen Gliederung Deutschlands. or Southwest Palatine Plateau (''Südwestpfälzische Hochfläche''), 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 ...

in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

, with small areas also in the

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

(

Saarpfalz-Kreis Saarpfalz (''Saar-Palatinate'') is a Kreis (district) in the south-east of the Saarland, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Saarbrücken, Neunkirchen, Kusel, Kaiserslautern, Südwestpfalz, district-free Zweibrücken, and t ...

). Its heart is in the southwest of the

Palatinate region The Palatinate (; ; Palatine German: ''Palz''), or the Rhenish Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''), is a historical region of Germany. The Palatinate occupies most of the southern quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (''Rheinla ...

and it is part of the historic region of Westrich.

Geography

Structure and boundaries

The Westrich Plateau consists mainly of the Sickingen Heights in the north and the

Zweibrücken Hills Zweibrücken (; ; , ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach River. Name The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; older forms of the name include Middle High German ''Zwei ...

in the south which, morphologically, belong more to northeastern

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

). The main plateau falls away in a marked scarp slope, the Sickingen Escarpment, to the northwest (towards the Homburg Basin) and especially to the north, towards the Landstuhl Marsh. By contrast, the eastern edge of the Westrich transitions rather smoothly from its

muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; ) is a sequence of sedimentary rock, sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 m ...

plateau to the

bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...

of the

Palatine Forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The forest is a designated nature park () covering 1,771&n ...

. The

subdivisions Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...

of the plateau along the Moosalb and near Eppenbrunn also extend into the wooded region of the Palatine Forest Nature Park. In the east the land gradually descends to the settlement fringe of

Pirmasens Pirmasens (; (also ''Bermesens'' or ''Bärmasens'')) is an independent town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It was famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called ''Landkreis Pirmasens ...

and the Trualbe, opposite the Queidersbach and the Moosalb valley, which forms the actual eastern boundary. To the south the Zweibrücken Hills continue the plateau into

, and more specifically into the Bitscherland and the Alsace bossue. The central section of the plateau's western boundary with the Saint Ingbert-Kirkeler Woods and, further south, with the Bliesgau, runs (according to the ''Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde'', Saarbrücken sheet, and popular opinion) just west of the state border with Saarland and does not cross the valley of the

Blies The Blies (; ) is a right tributary of the Saar in southwestern Germany ( Saarland) and northeastern France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and ...

, which from here on forms the boundary with the first-named of the two regions. This compares with a purely Saarland division according to Quasten which also counts a narrow strip of land southwest of

Blieskastel Blieskastel () is a city in the Saarpfalz-Kreis, Saarpfalz (Saar-Palatinate) district, in Saarland, Germany which is divided into villages. It is situated on the river Blies, approximately southwest of Homburg (Saar), west of Zweibrücken, and e ...

(right = west of the Blies) as part of the Zweibrücken Westrich.

References

Literature

* * * * * *

External links

* BfN landscape fact file
Sickingen Heights and Zweibrücken Hills
!-- Erroneously under "Zweibrücker Westrich" -->

{{coord missing, Rhineland-Palatinate Landscapes of Rhineland-Palatinate Western Palatinate Natural regions of the South German Scarplands