Ardey Hills
The Ardey Hills (German: Ardeygebirge or Ardey) are a range of wooded hills, up to 273.8 m above sea level (NN), in the territory of the city of Dortmund and the districts of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis and Unna in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The hills form part of the eastern Rhenish Massif and, to a lesser extent, to the Berg-Mark Hills (Bergisch-Märkisches Hügelland).
Geography
Location
The Ardey Hills, together with the Haarstrang, run from east to west, separating two major natural units: the Westphalian Lowland including the Emscher Depression and Hellwegbörde in the north from the Süder Uplands and lower Sauerland in the south, the Ardey being counted as part of the Süder Uplands and the Haarstrang the Westphalian Lowland.
From a topographical perspective, the Ardey Hills are the western foothills of the sparsely wooded and mainly agricultural Haarstrang. However it is different, not only from a cultural landscape point of view, but also geologically (a decisive factor being the carboniferous boundary near the surface).