Selke Valley

The river Selke, a right-bank tributary of the Bode, rises on the south side of the Ramberg (582m/1,910ft), a granite massif in the Unterharz, near the old mining town of Harzgerode. The Selke valley is less deeply indented than that of the Bode, with considerable stretches of wide flat meadowland.

Many place-names (Selkemühle, Schneidemühle, Silberhütte, Stahlhammer, Kupferhammer, etc.) bear witness to the harnessing of the Selke in earlier days to provide water power for the smelting of metal ores and the production of hardware.