Swabian Alb

(Local Name: Schwäbische Alb) Land: Baden-Württemburg

Situation and characteristics

The Swabian Alb, an upland region of Jurassic limestone of about 700m/2,300ft in height, extends for 210km/130mi, varying in width between 15km/9mi and 40km/25mi, from the southeastern edge of the Black Forest, where it reaches a height of 1015m/3,330ft in the Lemberg, to the Ries depression around Nördlingen. In the northwest the hills drop down to the valleys of the Neckar, the Fils and the Rems in a steep scarp some 400m/1,300ft high, which is broken up by valleys reaching deeply into the hills (several ruined castles are perched on outlying crags). To the southeast, the Alb slopes gently down to the Danube in a