Leipzig Bay

Last updated July 04, 2024

The Leipzig Bay^[1]^[2](German : Leipziger Tieflandsbucht) or Leipzig Basin^[3] or Saxon Lowland^[4] or Saxon Bay^[1] is a very flat, originally lakeless and highly fertile plain in Central Germany, in northwestern Saxony and southeastern Saxony-Anhalt, anchored by the foothills of the Harz mountains in the northwest and of the Ore Mountains in the southeast.

This region was originally covered with dense forests and meandering rivers. In the course of urbanization and lignite open pit mining, large areas were deforested and many rivers and streams canalised or diverted. The Leipzig Bay is bounded to the north by the Düben Heath, to the east by the River Elbe, to the south by the Ore Mountain Foreland and the Central Saxon Hills, and by the River Saale to the west. The conurbation formed by the two cities of Leipzig and Halle lies in the centre of the Leipzig Bay. Other important towns are Delitzsch, Eilenburg, Merseburg and Borna.

Geology

The Leipzig Bay is a Young Drift landscape and the southernmost part of the North German Plain. The landscape is essentially a plain broken only by low eminences such as the Hohburg Hills and dissected by the valleys of the Saale, White Elster, Mulde, and Pleiße rivers.

The Leipzig Bay was formed during the Tertiary period. When the Ore Mountains and Vogtland were uplifted, a basin was formed as a compensating movement, into which weathering material from the mountain ranges was deposited. As a result of the creation of bogs and variable flooding, organic material was also deposited in this basin, which in turn was overlaid by sediments. Brown coal or lignite was formed from these deposits, which is covered by layers of sand and loess.^[5]

Location

The landscape is very well served by communications. A cardioid ring motorway runs around the Leipzig-Halle conurbation, the so-called Central German Loop (Mitteldeutsche Schleife). Leipzig/Halle Airport is an important transport hub in the eastern German states. Railway lines and Bundesstraßen (federal roads) run in all directions of the compass, linking the Leipzig Bay with other parts of the country. Only inland shipping has no direct access to this region, although work on the unfinished Elster-Saale Canal began in the mid 20th century.

Importance

The Leipzig region is historically, culturally and economically of huge importance to Central Germany. Although open-cast mining continues in the area, it is also being developed from an environmental and tourist perspective, through the reclamation of old lignite pits and mining facilities and their conversion into recreation areas, especially north and south of Leipzig. By flooding some the open-cast mines many new lakes have been and are being created in the Leipzig Basin, which are gradually changing the face of the landscape.

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Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres (7,109 sq mi), and the sixth most populous, with more than 4 million inhabitants.

Thuringia, officially the Free State of Thuringia, is a state of central Germany, covering 16,171 square kilometres (6,244 sq mi), the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.

Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (German:[ˈhalə]; from the 15th to the 17th century: Hall in Sachsen; until the beginning of the 20th century: Halle an der Saale ; from 1965 to 1995: Halle/Saale) is the largest city of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the fifth-most populous city in the area of former East Germany after (East) Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, as well as the 31st-largest city of Germany, and with around 244,000 inhabitants, it is slightly more populous than the state capital of Magdeburg. Together with Leipzig, the largest city of Saxony, Halle forms the polycentric Leipzig-Halle conurbation. Between the two cities, in Schkeuditz, lies Leipzig/Halle International Airport. The Leipzig-Halle conurbation is at the heart of the larger Central German Metropolitan Region.

The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale and Thuringian Saale, is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the Main, or the Saale in Lower Saxony, a tributary of the Leine.

The Ore Mountains lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic at 1,244 metres (4,081 ft) above sea level and the Fichtelberg in Germany at 1,215 metres (3,986 ft).

Weißenfels was a district (Kreis) in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Neighboring districts were Burgenlandkreis, Merseburg-Querfurt and the Saxon district Leipziger Land.

Leipziger Land is a former district in Saxony, Germany. It was bounded by the districts of Delitzsch, the district-free city Leipzig, Muldentalkreis, Mittweida, the district Altenburger Land in Thuringia, and the districts Burgenlandkreis, Saalekreis in Saxony-Anhalt.

Upper Saxon is an East Central German dialect spoken in much of the modern German state of Saxony and in adjacent parts of southeastern Saxony-Anhalt and eastern Thuringia. As of the early 21st century, it is mostly extinct and a new regiolect has emerged instead. Though colloquially called "Saxon", it is not to be confused with the Low Saxon dialect group in Northern Germany. Upper Saxon is closely linked to the Thuringian dialect spoken in the adjacent areas to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saale glaciation</span> Glacial period in Europe

The Saale glaciation or Saale Glaciation, sometimes referred to as the Saalian glaciation, Saale cold period, Saale complex (Saale-Komplex) or Saale glacial stage, covers the middle of the three large glaciations in Northern Europe and the northern parts of Eastern Europe, Central Europe and Western Europe by the Scandinavian Inland Ice Sheet. It follows the Holstein interglacial and precedes the Eemian interglacial, spanning from around 400,000 years ago to 130,000 years ago. The Saalian covers multiple glacial cycles punctuated by interglacial periods. In its latter part it is coeval with the global Penultimate Glacial Period.

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The Magdeburg Börde is the central landscape unit of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and lies to the west and south of the eponymous state capital Magdeburg. Part of a loess belt stretching along the southeastern rim of the North German Plain, it is noted for its very fertile Chernozem soils.

The Saxon Highlands and Uplands refer to a natural region mainly in the south of Saxony with small elements also in southeast Thuringia and northeast Bavaria. It comprises, from (south)west to (north)east, of the Vogtland, the Ore Mountains, Saxon Switzerland, the Upper Lusatian Plateau and the Zittau Hills.

The Western Ore Mountains is a natural region that forms the westernmost part of the Ore Mountains in the German state of Saxony. It is also part of the major landscape unit known as the Saxon Highlands and Uplands. It extends eastwards to include the valley of the Schwarzwasser, and, below its mouth, that of the Zwickauer Mulde, and incorporates the western parts of the former major units known as the Lower and Upper Western Ore Mountains, no. 423, as well as the Southern Slopes of the Ore Mountains, no. 420.

The Düben Heath is a landscape in Germany in eastern Saxony-Anhalt and northern Saxony, between the rivers Elbe and the Mulde, on the northern edge of the Leipzig Bay.

The Elster-Saale Canal, renamed in 1999 by the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration to Saale-Leipzig Canal or SLK and on the Halle side also called Saale-Elster Canal, was a canal project started in 1933 and aborted in 1943. It was intended to link the White Elster river with the Saale near Leuna and thus enable the city of Leipzig to be joined to Germany's inland waterway network. The 11 kilometre long water-filled channel is one of the "special federal waterways".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural regions of Saxony</span>

The classification of natural regions of Saxony shown here was produced between 1994 and 2001 by a working group called "Ecosystem and Regional Character" at the Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig as part of the research and development project "Natural Regions and Natural Region Potential of the Free State of Saxony" at a scale of 1:50,000 as the basis for the rural development and regional planning. This was also supported by the Saxon State Ministry of the Environment and Agriculture and the Saxon Ministry of the Interior.

The Saxon-Lower Lusatian Heathland is a natural region in the German state of Saxony. The current natural region division of the Free State of Saxony groups landscape units of the upper geochore or sub-regional level into three "Saxon natural regions" to produce a large-scale classification. These are part of higher order (cross-border) natural regions, whereas the landscape units previously used described areas that were largely confined within the borders of Saxony.

The Bundesstraße 87 is a Bundesstraße in Germany. It begins in Ilmenau and ends in Frankfurt (Oder). In Thüringia it runs partly along the Straße der Romanik.

References

1 2 Dickinson (1964), p. 29.
↑ Utrata Fachwörterbuch: Geographie - Englisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Englisch by Jürgen Utrata (2014). Retrieved 10 Apr 2014.
↑ "Leipzig | History, Population, & Facts | Britannica".
↑ Dickinson (1964), p. 37.
↑ Geologische Übersichtskarte 1 : 200,000, Sheet CC 4734 Leipzig. Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe Archived 2011-07-18 at archive.today

Literature

Dickinson, Robert E (1964). Germany: A regional and economic geography (2nd ed.). London: Methuen. ASIN B000IOFSEQ.
Donath, Matthias (2010). Leipziger Land. Kulturlandschaften Sachsens Bd. 2, Edition Leipzig, Leipzig.

51°00′00″N13°00′00″E / 51.0000°N 13.0000°E / 51.0000; 13.0000

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[D-1] 1 2 Dickinson (1964), p. 29.

[Utrata-2] Utrata Fachwörterbuch: Geographie - Englisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Englisch by Jürgen Utrata (2014). Retrieved 10 Apr 2014.

[3] "Leipzig | History, Population, & Facts | Britannica".

[D1-4] Dickinson (1964), p. 37.

[5] Geologische Übersichtskarte 1 : 200,000, Sheet CC 4734 Leipzig. Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe Archived 2011-07-18 at archive.today

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