Montabaur Valley
The Montabaurer Senke is a valley basin stretching from northwest to southeast in the southwest of the Niederwesterwald in the Westerwaldkreis , Rhineland-Palatinate . It lies on the boundaries of the Verbandsgemeinden Montabaur (south) Wirges (center and west) and Selters (extreme north); Smaller parts in the extreme east are also in the Wallmerod Association . In addition to the eponymous city of Montabaur (in the south), the depression also contains the city of Wirges (west of the center) and touches the city of Selters in the far north .
The soil of the Montabaur depression is heavily clayey . As part of the Kannenbäckerland , known for its ceramic industry , the economy of the valley is heavily dependent on the mining and processing of the clay.
Location and limits
The Montabaurer depression is framed clockwise by the following mountain ranges (or the river valleys mentioned):
-
Emsbach-Gelbach-Heights
- Eppenroder plateau (up to 443 m, lower near the valley; east south)
- Welschneudorf plateau (up to 480 m, lower near the valley; central to western south)
- Montabaurer Höhe (up to 545 m, west)
- Valley of the Saynbach south-west of and near Selters as the border to the Dierdorfer Senke (around 230 m, north-west)
- Oberwesterwälder Kuppenland (in the immediate vicinity up to 500 m, north)
- Southern Oberwesterwald hill country (in the immediate vicinity up to almost 400 m, east)
- Valley of the Erbach near Dreikirchen and Limburg Basin (around 220 m, extreme southeast)
The last three landscapes mentioned are already parts of the Oberwesterwald and the Gießen-Koblenz Lahntal .
The northernmost place of the valley is Selters, the southernmost Niederelbert and the (south-) easternmost Dreikirchen.
landscape
The Montabaur Depression , filled with soft tertiary rocks , predominantly clays , lies in the wind and rain shadow of the Montabaurer Höhe and is fed by rivers from the Oberwesterwald to the east . The hollows are interrupted by smaller volcanic knolls. The broader ridges lying between the river valleys and stretching northward usually only exceed the bottom by 50 to 75 m.
The highest and most striking elevation is the 422 m high phonolite cone of the Malberg , which is surrounded by the nature reserve named after him . Another, much smaller nature reserve within the depression is the NSG Spießweiher immediately south of Montabaur .
About a third of the landscape is forested (40% of which is coniferous), a quarter of the area is occupied by traffic and settlement areas.
Rivers
The Montabaur Valley is traversed by the following rivers, starting in the northwest, in an approximate north (east) -south (west) direction, all of which have their source in the Oberwesterwald :
The Sayn- Lahn watershed runs through the north-west of the depression, which is why the two Sayn streams that pass in south-west directions only make up a small part of the landscape.
The southeastern border river Erbach is the only one that drains over the Elbbach to the Lahn, while all the other rivers listed drain in a pinnate shape to the Gelbach in southern directions. Like the Erbach, they leave the depression in front of their mouth and cut through the adjoining Emsbach-Gelbach heights.
Some right tributaries also reach the Gelbach from west to south, such as the Stadtbach coming from the Montabaurer Höhe to the west and the Niederelberterbach coming from the plateau of Welschneudorf to the south, which flanks the extreme south of the valley.
mountains
The most important surveys of the Niederwesterwald include (coordinates of mountains without articles in brackets):
- Malberg (422 m, NSG) - north
- Köppel (355 m) - extreme northwest, at the Sayn valley ( 50.5157 ° N, 7.74031 ° E )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interactive map service of the Rhineland-Palatinate Nature Conservation Administration (→ Landscape Experience → Landscapes in RP)
- ↑ Map services ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the BfN
- ^ "Montabaurer Senke" landscape profile - landscape information system of the Rhineland-Palatinate nature conservation administration
