page_title: Wasgau
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: Wasgau / Geography / Structure
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Etang de Hanau (Moselle)
context_page_description: The Wasgau is a Franco-German hill range in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle. It is formed from the southern part of the Palatine Forest and the northern part of the Vosges mountains, and extends from the River Queich in the north over the French border to the Col de Saverne in the south.
  The highest hill in the entire Wasgau is the Grand Wintersberg near Niederbronn-les-Bains in northern Alsace. Next, at 577 m is the only slightly lower Rehberg near Annweiler in the South Palatinate, which is the highest summit on German soil in the Wasgau.
  The Wasgau forms the southern part of the Palatine Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve.
context_section_description: The uplands of the Wasgau differ from those of the central Palatine Forest that border it to the north. The landscape of the Wasgau has a characteristically variable nature, with numerous conical hills (Kegelberge) as well as clearly rounded domes (Kuppen). Between the hills are conspicuously level plains, some of them extensive.
  The Wasgau is drained mostly towards the east by left-hand tributaries of the River Rhine, namely the Queich, the Lauter (called the Wieslauter in its upper reaches) and the Saarbach, which continues as the Sauer in North Alsace. setzt. There it is followed by the Moder, whose catchment area extends southwards via its right-hand tributary, the Zorn, beyond the Col de Saverne.
  There are no natural lakes in the Wasgau, but especially in the area of the Saarbach stream, historic ponds or woogs have survived from the Middle Ages. These are small lakes that were artificially created to breed fish or to utilize their water in the operation of watermills or iron hammer mills. The water of the Zinsel du Nord near Baerenthal  in the Pays de Bitche was used during the 18th and 19th centuries for processing iron in the ironworks and blast furnaces. To that end, several larger and smaller ponds were laid out between Mouterhouse and Baerenthal, which have been mainly used for tourism since the closure of the last ironworks in 1923. Even the Étang de Hanau, a pond a few miles east of Bitche in Éguelshardt has become a major tourist centre with swimming facilities, boat rentals and camping.
  Splash dams (ecluses) were constructed, for example on the Wieslauter stream, as part of the timber rafting industry, that was practised until the end of the 19th century. These dams were able to trap logs after temporary flooding which, after the opening of a weir could be transported downstream on the water.
caption: The Hanauer Weiher with Waldeck Castle in the background
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