The Sickingen Heights form the northern part of the Westrich Plateau; about a third of the area within the county of Kaiserslautern and two-thirds in the county of Südwestpfalz. It extends from Sickingen's town of Landstuhl in the north almost to the town of Zweibrücken in the south and from the border between Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland in the west to the Palatinate Forest in the east.
Geology
The Sickingen Heights belong to the major region known as the Palatine-Saarland Muschelkalk Region (Pfälzisch-Saarländisches Muschelkalkgebiet).[1] The hilly plateau, which lies at heights from 300 to 430 m above sea level (NN) descends very steeply in the north in several, densely wooded, escarpments to the Landstuhl Marsh. Numerous small and medium-sized rock formations from the bunter sandstone of the Karlstal beds outcrop along the escarpment, for example the Heidenfelsen near Hauptstuhl, the eponymous rocks near Bärenloch in Kindsbach or the rock landscape in the Fleischackerloch near Landstuhl. Somewhat less rugged in appearance is the plateau's westward transition to the Saarland and even less than that in the east, where the valley of the Moosalb forms the boundary. In the south the Sickingen Heights transition almost seamlessly into the Zweibrücken Hills.
In the old schoolhouse at Queidersbach, built in 1836, is the Sickingen Heights Museum (Museum Sickinger Höhe). Opened in 1976 and covering an area of 500 m2, the museum offers an overview of history of the region from early times until the recent past.[2]
The land is sparsely settled and the only large towns occur on the lower-lying perimeter of the plateau. There are no pan-regional transport routes, except for a mostly two-lane section of the A 62 motorway Landstuhl–Pirmasens.
Due to its remoteness, the region is well suited for hiking e.g. along the Mill Trail in the Wallhalb Valley. Over the Sickingen Heights runs the waymarked North Route of the Palatine sections of the historic Way of St. James.
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