The Stade Geest is a natural region

Natural region

A Natural region is one which is distinguished by its natural features of geography and usually more important, geology. The natural ecology of the region is likely to be significant but one of these factors tends to influence the others....

 of low, sandy heath (geest

Geest (topography)

Geest is a type of slightly raised landscape that occurs in the plains of in Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. It is a landscape of sandy and gravelly soils, usually mantled by a heathland vegetation, comprising glacial deposits left behind after the last ice age during the...

) in the North German Plain

North German plain

The North German Plain or Northern Lowland is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain...

.

It includes a large part of the Elbe-Weser Triangle

Elbe-Weser Triangle

The region between Bremen , Hamburg and Cuxhaven forms the Elbe-Weser Triangle in northern Germany. It is also colloquially referred to as the Nasses Dreieck or "Wet Triangle"...

 between the cities of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

 and Cuxhaven and is bordered by the natural regions of the Elbe Marsch, Weser Marsch, Weser-Aller Plain and Lüneburg Heath

Lüneburg Heath

The Lüneburg Heath is a large area of heath, geest and woodland in northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover, and Bremen and is named after the town of Lüneburg. Most of the area is a nature reserve...

. It is number D27 in the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation's list of natural regions of Germany

Natural regions of Germany

This division of Germany into major natural regions takes account primarily of geomorphological, geological, hydrological and pedological criteria in order to divide the country into large, physical units with a common geographical basis...

.

The region known as the Stade Geest belongs administratively to the districts of Osterholz, Verden, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg (Wümme) and Stade, which used to be within the former province of Stade (Regierungsbezirk Stade). Small parts of the Geest also belong to the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...

Subdivisions

The Stade Geest is further subdivided into the morainic areas of young drift (Jungmoränen) left by the Vistula glaciation: the Wesermünde Geest and Zeven Geest, which are separated by the Hamme-Oste Depression

Teufelsmoor

The Teufelsmoor is a region of bog and moorland north of Bremen, Germany. It forms a large part of the district of Osterholz, and extends into the neighbouring districts of Rotenburg .- Geography :...

, and the Achim-Verden Geest, that is separated from the other two by the Wümme Depression.