Taunus

The Taunus (German pronunciation: [ˈtaʊnʊs] ^ⓘ) is a mountain range in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located north west of Frankfurt and north of Wiesbaden. The tallest peak in the range is Großer Feldberg at 878 m; other notable peaks are Kleiner Feldberg (825 m) and Altkönig (798 m).

The range is bounded on three sides (west, north, and south) by the Rhine and its tributaries, namely the Lahn and the Main, and on the east by the plain of Wetterau. It spans the districts of Hochtaunuskreis, Main-Taunus-Kreis, Rheingau-Taunus, Limburg-Weilburg, and Rhein-Lahn. The range is known for its geothermal springs and mineral waters that formerly attracted members of the European aristocracy to its spa towns. The car line Ford Taunus is named after it.

The Taunus is the southeastern part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. The low mountain range is about 75 km long from southwest to northeast and about 35 km wide across it from northwest to southeast,it covers an area of about 2700 km². In the west, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley borders the Taunus and separates it from the western Hunsrück. In the north, the valley of the Lahn (Giessen-Koblenzer Lahntal) with the Limburg Basin forms a very sharp scenic border to the northern Westerwald. In the east, the Giessen Basin (southernmost part of the West Hessian Uplands) with Dießenbach and Kleebach border to the north, the Wetterau with Wetter and Nidda to the south of the slate mountains; in the south, the Rheingau and the Main-Taunus foothills form natural borders. The last three landscapes are part of the Rhine-Main lowlands.

On the southern edge are the towns of Rüdesheim am Rhein, Wiesbaden, Hofheim am Taunus and Bad Homburg vor der Höhe at the junctions with the valleys of the Upper Rhine and Main; the towns of Bad Nauheim and Butzbach are on the eastern edge at the junction with the Wetterau; in the north on the Lahn the towns of Wetzlar, Weilburg, Bad Ems and Lahnstein border on the Hintertaunus; in the west in the Middle Rhine is, among other things, Lorch at the seam (each in an anti-clockwise direction).

The Taunus is a heterogeneous landscape area, but it is usually quite distinct from the surrounding landscapes and is classified as a main natural area unit group. The natural landscape is divided according to morphology, geological structure, climate and partly by the prevailing vegetation into sub-landscapes that are more uniform in themselves. The cultural landscape, i.e. the natural landscape shaped by man, shows the following structure in terms of land use, the location and distribution of settlements and the course of traffic routes.

In the south are the more wooded and higher parts, namely the Vordertaunus (naturally also called Vortaunus) and the Hohe Taunus (around Taunus main ridge), where in the Feldberg massif the highest heights not only of the Taunus but of the entire Rhenish Slate Mountains are reached. That is why the climate here is rougher than in the upstream landscape areas - it is colder on average, it rains and, in particular, it snows more. The turbulent relief offers little space for settlements and agricultural use. On the mostly shallow and fertile soils, which developed from acidic rock, there is mainly forest here. The Vortaunus is more inconsistent than the main ridge, it is morphologically more fragmented and the bays of the foothills divide it more.

Hintertaunus is the name given to the area north of the Hoher Taunus up to the Lahn valley. The landscape here is lower and less mountainous than in the southern Taunus. Between the valleys, some of which are quite deep, there are pronounced plateaus (leveled areas) with heavy agricultural use. Since mostly only the slopes of the valley are forested, the Hintertaunus is generally more open. The landscape of the Hintertaunus is more inconsistent because of its different elevations. This is clearly evident in the eastern Hintertaunus. Here, for example, there is a high-altitude landscape with dense forest cover, a harsher climate and poor soil in the Pferdskopf-Bergland; but also the Usinger basin, a gently undulating, open basin landscape with fertile soil and a balanced climate.

The Hintertaunus is divided into the Western and Eastern Hintertaunus by the Idstein Depression, which developed in the Idstein–Bad Camberg area. The Idstein depression widens towards the Lahn valley towards the Limburg Basin and is also known as the Goldener Grund in the northern area, probably because agriculture found more favorable conditions here. The relief is gently undulating, the soil is fertile due to the high proportion of loess and the climate is milder due to the basin location.