Colline de Quebec

View of the northern part of the Colline de Québec with the old town, including the Saint Lawrence River

The Colline de Québec (also called Promontoire de Québec ) is a densely populated high plateau in the Canadian city ​​of Québec . It extends parallel to the Saint Lawrence River and extends from Cap Diamant in the north-west (above the mouth of the Rivière Saint-Charles ) to Cap Rouge in the south-west (at the mouth of the Rivière Cap Rouge ). The plateau, at the northeast end of which is the upper part of Old Québec , is 13 kilometers long and between one and four kilometers wide. Administratively it belongs to the arrondissements of La Cité-Limoilou and Sainte-Foy – Sillery – Cap-Rouge .

The plateau reaches a height of up to 110 meters, which means that it towers over the surrounding terrain by around a hundred meters. The partly rocky slopes fall very steeply towards the St. Lawrence River, while they are flatter towards the northwest towards the valley of the Rivière Saint-Charles. From a geological point of view, the Colline de Québec is one of the few foothills of the Appalachian Mountains that protrude on the northern side of the Saint Lawrence River. The base consists of sandstone and mudstone , in the higher layers slate is predominant. On the plateau, the rocky ground is covered with sand and gravel . They are deposits of the former Champlain Sea , which was formed after the last glacial period and gradually disappeared due to the advancing postglacial land uplift. About 9800 to 7500 years ago, the Colline de Québec was an island in Lac Lampsilis, until this freshwater lake gave way to the forerunner of the Saint Lawrence River.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Serge Courville, Robert Garon: Québec, ville et capitale . Les Presses de l'Université Laval, Québec 2001, ISBN 2-7637-7674-4 , pp. 22-23 .
2. ^ Ligne de temps. In: L'archéologie à Québec. City of Québec, accessed September 28, 2014 (French). 

Coordinates: 46 ° 47 ′ 13.2 "  N , 71 ° 15 ′ 21.6"  W.