Harly Forest

The Harly Forest (German: Harly-Wald, also Harlywald or just Harly) is a hill range up to 256 m above NN in the district of Goslar in southeastern Lower Saxony in Germany.

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Geography

It is located in the northern Harz Foreland about 11 kilometres as the crow flies northeast of Goslar and immediately north-northwest of Vienenburg. It is surrounded by the individual villages of the borough of Vienenburg. The Harly is 6 km long by 1 km wide and its eastern foothills overlook the valley of the Oker. The Harly Forest may be reached from the A 395 motorway, the B 241 and B 82 federal roads and the side roads and tracks branching off the those roads.

The highest hill in the Harly Forest is the Harlyberg, roughly 256 metres high, atop which an observation tower, the Harly Tower (Harlyturm), stands.

Geology and Ecology

The Harly is a tectonic salt formation. In the technical language of geologists the Harly Forest is classed as a "Geological Anticline" (Geologischer Schmalsattel). Ecologically the Harly Forest is a near-natural hillside forest (naturnaher Hangwald) on warm-dry chalk and silicate habitats.

History

The eastern edge of the ridge lies immediately above the Oker valley and from 1203 to 1291 was the site of a castle erected by King Otto IV – the Harlyburg. Because the castle passed to his heirs after Otto's death, who used its favourable location for ambushes and highway robberies, it was besieged for several months and eventually completely slighted.

Places of interest

In addition to the woods themselves, the places of interest in the Harly Forest include the old castle of Harlyburg and the Harly Tower on the Harlyberg. A vestige of former mining activity in the area is the historic Hercynia Potash Works with its old shafts: numbers I, II and III. The former monastery of Wöltingerode Abbey, which is located on the southern perimeter of the ridge west of Vienenburg, and its abbey distillery are also worth seeing.

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