Rügen - Landscape

The much-lauded beauty of Rügen is created by the juxtaposition within a relatively small area of very different types of landscapes. The southwestern part of the island, which is predominantly flat agricultural country, contrasts with the forest-covered rounded hills to the northeast, which reach a height of 91m/299ft in Rugard (Ernst Moritz Arndt Tower, 27m/89ft high) near Bergen, and continue to the east in the Granitz hills (Tempelberg, 107m/351ft, with hunting lodge and 38m/125ft high outlook tower) between Binz and Sellin, which then slope steeply down to the sea. Between these ranges of hills and the peninsulas of Wittow (chief place Altenkirchen) and Jasmund (chief place Sassnitz) are the great sheets of water of the bodden (depressions drowned by the sea), including the Grosser and the Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden.