Welcome to the Harz Portal, the home of Wikipedia information on the Harz, an important natural landscape and tourist destination in North Germany.
The portal gives a brief overview of the region, provides a road map for many of the articles about the Harz in English Wikipedia, and shows how you can get involved improving Wikipedia's coverage of the Harz.
The Harz is the second highest mountain range in Germany's Central Uplands after the Ore Mountains and extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart (mountain forest). The Harz has the highest mountain in northwestern Germany, the legendary Brocken, which is 1,141 metres (3,743 ft) above sea level and was the site of a former Soviet listening post during the Cold War. The Harz also hosts the highest dam in Germany, the 106 m high Rappbode Dam. The region has a high level of snow and rainfall, and its network of lakes and dams provide drinking water to the surrounding towns and cities as well as flood protection. It is also a popular tourist destination with ski resorts such as Braunlage and Sankt Andreasberg and a major hiking trail network known as the Harzer Wandernadel. More...
The Thuringii, Toringi or Teuriochaimai were an early Germanic people that appeared during the late Migration Period in the Harz Mountains of central Germania, a region still known today as Thuringia. It became a kingdom, which came into conflict with the MerovingianFranks, and it later came under their influence and Frankish control. The name is still used for one of modern Germany's federal states (Bundesländer). (Full article...)
An indication of the natural state of the beech woods in the Harz is the return of the black stork (pictured)?
The Harz Narrow Gauge Railways, an old fashioned, steam and diesel-powered railway network is a very popular mode of transport, especially with tourists ?