High Taunus

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High Taunus
Overview map Taunus

Overview map Taunus

Highest peak Großer Feldberg ( 879  m above sea  level )
location Hesse
part of Taunus
Coordinates 50 ° 14 ′  N , 8 ° 28 ′  E Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′  N , 8 ° 28 ′  E
Type Low mountain range
rock Gray Phyllite, Hermes Wedge Layers, Colorful Slates, Taunus Quartzite
surface 314.92 km²
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Hoher Taunus is the name of a natural spatial main unit (301) in the Hessian low mountain range Taunus for the immediate vicinity of the Taunushauptkamm . This is to be distinguished from the name Hochtaunus , which in the sense of Hochtaunuskreis only names the eastern part around the Feldberg massif. The Hohe Taunus separates the Vordertaunus in the south from the Hintertaunus in the north and includes by far most of the highest mountains and elevations of the Taunus . The eastern part of the natural area is in the Taunus Nature Park and the western part in the Rhine-Taunus Nature Park .

Geographical location

The Hohe Taunus extends as a mountain ridge in a southwest-northeast direction from the Middle Rhine across from the Binger Wald to the Wetterau in front of Bad Nauheim on 75 kilometers (km) in length with an average width of only 4 to 5 km. The narrowest part of the main ridge with only 2.4 km is at the level of the Saalburg . At 7 km, the widest part of the natural area is between Presberg and Rüdesheim am Rhein . From the Maintaunus plain (approx.  100  m above sea  level ) in the south, the ridge zone rises rapidly and steeply to over 600 to 879  m in height, and towers over it by 400 to 600 meters (m). To the north, the Taunus ridge only drops steeply by 200 to 300 m to the Hintertaunus.

The geological core of the Taunus ridge unit form several hundred meters thick layers Taunusquartzite . The very weather-resistant rock forms many peaks of the ridge line such as the Großer Feldberg , the highest Taunusberg at 879  m , but also forms island-like mountains to the south such as the Hallgarter Zange , the Schläferskopf , the Kellerskopf and the Altkönig . In some places , however, a parallel ridge has formed, in particular at the Theiss valley of Niedernhausen , which is bordered by two ridge lines in the north and south.

Natural spatial structure of the Taunus

Although quartzite offers great resistance to erosion by water, some Taunus brooks draining southward have cut this barrier, namely the Walluf , the Schwarzbach with the source river Dattenbach and the tributary Daisbach and the Erlenbach in the Köpperner valley.

Natural structure

After the cuts in the ridge line, the Hohe Taunus is naturally divided as follows:

  • 301 Hoher Taunus (314.92 km²)
    • 301.0 Niederwald (12.87 km²)
    • 301.1 Rheingau Mountains (76.47 km²)
    • 301.2 Wiesbadener Hochtaunus (71.73 km²)
    • 301.3 Feldberg-Taunuskamm (96.95 km²)
    • 301.4 Winterstein-Taunuskamm (45.80 km²)
    • 301.5 Nauheimer Taunussporn (11.40 km²)
View from the eastern Hintertaunus to the Hochtaunus; in front the village of Brombach , in the middle behind the Große Feldberg

The Hohe Taunus is only populated and used for agriculture where cuts have offered it. Aulhausen lies in the cut between Niederwald and Rheingau mountains , Stephanshausen lies in the cut of the Elsterbach , Hausen before the height at the pass to Kiedrich , Schlangenbad and Georgenborn in the cut of the Walluftal ; Königshofen , Niedernhausen , Oberjosbach and Ehlhalten lie in the cuts of Daisbach and Dattenbach in the double ridge line. Finally, Schloßborn and Glashütten are on the western flank of the Feldberg-Taunus ridge , Eppenhain and Seitzenhahn are on the southern roof of the Vordertaunus.

Apart from the Nauheimer Taunussporn and the area around Niedernhausen, the Hohe Taunus shows itself as an uninterrupted forest belt.

The Hohe Taunus is a traffic obstacle for north-south traffic. Only a few places offer transitions where the traffic through the Taunus is bundled. The deepest cut is at Niederseelbach with a height of 351  m . Many important Taunus crossings lead traffic to a height of more than 500  m .

climate

The Hohe Taunus, from altitudes above 600  m , has the highest precipitation values ​​in the Taunus, which are primarily the result of the uphill , but also the frontal rain . In summer, the level of condensation is usually above the main ridge, while in winter westerly winds, however, clouds often envelop the peaks. The westerly weather conditions cause a traffic jam in winter (from October to January), which brings larger amounts of precipitation, especially in the higher elevations of the Hohe Taunus. In spring the main wind direction shifts to the northwest. Coupled with this is an increase in showers , which have an impact in lower elevations and weaken an increase in the amount of precipitation due to altitude. The summery north-east and east weather conditions are not infrequently associated with drops of cold air at high altitudes, which trigger abundant rainfall. Together with showers and thunderstorms, they provide the highest rainfall, especially in the lower elevations in July and August. The September minimum seems to have its cause in the more frequent high pressure weather conditions.

The Hohe Taunus from the southeast (view from the Wetterau near Karben )

A good long-distance view is particularly often achieved when strong north-westerly winds blow over the Taunus outside of winter, then the area can be seen up to 150 km away to the south. The precipitation, which in contrast to the Vordertaunus does not reach a summer maximum, often falls in winter in the form of snow and covers the Hochtaunus. The basic climate element for this is the temperature, which is 3 to 4 ° C lower than in the lowlands due to the vertical temperature gradient of 0.6 ° C on average per 100 m. The snow cover, in turn, causes a higher albedo , so that in spring, when spring has already rung in, the sun's energy is first needed to melt the snow and the ground can only be heated up afterwards.

The mean annual mean temperature in the High Taunus is 5.5 to 7.5 ° C, in the Feldberg area the lowest value is 5.5 ° C. The mean annual precipitation is around 800 to 1000 mm. In the western High Taunus ( Rheingau mountains and Wiesbaden high Taunus ) the value is 800 to 900 mm. In the eastern High Taunus ( Winterstein-Taunuskamm ) the annual precipitation is already weakening to 800 mm. The 1000 mm mark is only reached on the highest peaks of the central Hohe Taunus ( Feldberg-Taunuskamm ), the Großer Feldberg, Kleine Feldberg and the Altkönig.

mountains

The highest mountains of the Hohe Taunus include:

Great Feldberg

Name, height in meters (m) above mean sea level (sea level; if not otherwise stated according to), location ( natural area )

→ Main article: List of mountains and elevations of the Taunus

Localities

Glass head with glassworks , behind to the left the Kleine Feldberg

The localities on and in the Hohe Taunus include:

See also

literature

  • Reimer Hermann: Comparative hydrogeography of the Taunus and its southern and southeastern peripheral areas, Wilhelm Schmitz Verlag, Gießen, 1965
  • Alexander Stahr, Birgit Bender: Der Taunus - A journey through time , Stuttgart, 2007, ISBN 978-3-510-65224-2
  • Eugen Ernst: Der Taunus - Ein L (i) ebensworth Mittelgebirge , Frankfurt, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7973-1146-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map and legend of the natural areas of Hesse (online copy of Die Naturraum Hessens , Otto Klausing 1988) in the Hessen Environmental Atlas of the Hessian State Office for Environment and Geology
  2. ↑ Comparative hydrogeography of the Taunus and its southern and southeastern peripheral areas, Reimer Hermann, Wilhelm Schmitz Verlag (see section Literature )
  3. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  4. ↑ Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt : Statistisches Jahrbuch 2011/12, Volume 2, Page 21; Retrieved January 5, 2014