Eifel

Not to be confused with Eiffel (disambiguation).
Eifel

Map of the Eifel

Highest point
Peak Hohe Acht
Elevation 747 m (2,451 ft)
Dimensions
Length 100 km (62 mi)
Area 5,300 km2 (2,000 sq mi)
Geography
Countries Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg
States Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia
Range coordinates 50°23′N 6°52′E / 50.39°N 6.87°E / 50.39; 6.87Coordinates: 50°23′N 6°52′E / 50.39°N 6.87°E / 50.39; 6.87
Parent range Rhenish Slate Mountains
Geology
Orogeny low mountains
Type of rock slate, limestone, quartzite, sandstone, basalt
Eifel scenery
View of the Laacher See, one of the lakes in the Volcanic Eifel

The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium.

The Eifel is part of the Rhenish Massif; within its northern portions lies the Eifel National Park.

Geography

Location of the Eifel in Germany

The Eifel is bordered by the river Moselle in the south and the Rhine in the east. In the north it is limited by the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde, in the west by the Ardennes of Belgium and Luxembourg.

There are several distinct chains within the Eifel.

Since 2004 about 110 km² of the Eifel within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have been protected as the Eifel National Park nature reserve.

Geology

The Eifel and its western continuation into Belgium, the Ardennes, are a part of the Variscan mountain belt and belong to the Rhenish Massif (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge).

The Eifel consists mainly of Devonian slates, sandstones and limestones, laid down in an ocean south of the Old Red Continent[2] and folded and overthrust in the Variscan orogeny. The Eifel geological structures like main folds and overthrusts can be traced in a SW-NE direction far beyond the Rhine valley.

Eifel volcanic area

In the Tertiary and Quaternary geological eras, the Eifel was a site of extensive volcanic activity. Some of the hills are volcanic vents. The peculiar circle-shaped lakes (maars) of the volcanic regions formed in volcanic craters. The last volcanic eruptions in the Laacher See volcanic site took place around 10,000 years ago and generated a huge volume of volcanic ash, now found in thin ash layers in contemporaneous sediments throughout Europe. The volcanism of the Eifel is thought to be partly caused by the Eifel hotspot, a place where hot material from deep in the mantle rises to the surface, and partly by melt-ascent at deep fractures in the Earth's crust.[3] Research has shown that the volcanism is still active; the Eifel region is rising by 1–2 mm per year.

Historically, the Eifel volcanoes had inactive phases of 10,000 to 20,000 years between active phases, suggesting there is a possibility of future eruptions.

Castles

Lissingen Castle
Eltz Castle
Manderscheid castles

Well preserved

19th- and 20th-century rebuilds

Ruins

Mountains and hills

In winter the Eifel is often covered with snow

The mountains and hills of the Eifel include the following (in order of height in metres above sea level):

  • Hohe Acht (747 metres (2,451 ft)), High Eifel
  • Ernstberg (or Erresberg) (698.8 metres (2,293 ft)), High Eifel
  • Schwarzer Mann (697.3 metres (2,288 ft)), Schnee Eifel
  • Signal de Botrange (694 metres (2,277 ft)), Hohes Venn
  • Weißer Stein (692 metres (2,270 ft)), North Eifel
  • Scharteberg (691 metres (2,267 ft)), Volcanic Eifel
  • Nürburg (678 metres (2,224 ft)), with the castle of the same name (Nürburg Castle), High Eifel
  • Prümscheid (675 metres (2,215 ft)), High Eifel
  • Raßberg (667 metres (2,188 ft)), High Eifel
  • Steling (658 metres (2,159 ft)), Hohes Venn
  • Nerother Kopf (647 metres (2,123 ft)), Volcanic Eifel
  • Aremberg (623 metres (2,044 ft)), Ahr Hills
  • Dietzenley (617 metres (2,024 ft)), Gerolstein / Volcanic Eifel
  • Hardtkopf (596 m), South Eifel
  • Michelsberg (588 m), Ahr Hills
  • Hochsimmer (587.9 m), East Eifel
  • Eigart (565 m), North Eifel
  • Rockeskyller Kopf (555 m), Volcanic Eifel
  • Hoher List (549 m), Volcanic Eifel
  • Wildbretshügel (525.3 m), Rur Eifel, Kermeter
  • Kalvarienberg (Alendorf) (523 m), North Eifel
  • Kirchberg (520 m), North Eifel
  • Häuschen (507 m), North Eifel
  • Hochthürmen (499.8 m), North Eifel
  • Teufelsley (496 m), North Eifel
  • Kellerberg (448 m), Meulenwald
  • Stockert (435 m), Münstereifel Forest
  • Herkelstein (435 m), North Eifel
  • Veitskopf (428 m), Volcanic Eifel
  • Burgberg (400.5 m), Rur Eifel, North Eifel
  • Sonnenberg (393,3 m), Rur Eifel
  • Calmont (378 m), Pre-Eifel
  • Bausenberg (340 m), North Eifel
  • Landskrone (272 m), Ahr Hills

Points of interest

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Elkins, T.H. (1972). Germany (3rd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, 1972. ASIN B0011Z9KJA.
  2. Meyer,W. 1986. Geologie der Eifel, p.4. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-510-65127-8
  3. Meyer 1986, p. 275

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Eifel.
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