Aalen is situated on the upper reaches of the river Kocher, at the foot of the Swabian Jura which lies to the south and south-east, and close to the hilly landscapes of the Ellwanger Berge to the north and the Welland to the north-west.

In terms of natural regions, the west of Aalen ’ s territory is on the foreland of the eastern Swabian Jura, and the north and north-west is on the Swabian-Franconian Uplands, both being part of the Swabian Keuper-Lias Plains.

The south-west is part of the Albuch, the east is part of the Härtsfeld, these two both being parts of the Swabian Jura.

The following day, the Allied army swung away from the Rhine towards the hills of the Swabian Jura and the Danube beyond.

The extreme right flank of the Franco-Bavarian army was covered by the Danube ; to the extreme left flank lay the undulating pine-covered hills of the Swabian Jura.

In Germany, the Jura is lower in altitude, stretching into Bavaria in the Swabian and Franconian plateaus.

The Albtrauf, which forms the northwestern border of the Swabian Jura

The Swabian Jura near Tübingen

The Swabian Jura (, ( also, rarely ) ), sometimes also given the name Swabian Alps in English, is a low mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width.

The geology of the Swabian Jura is mostly limestone, which formed the seabed during the Jurassic period.

Tertiary relicts can be found at the southern part of Swabian Jura.

Typical Swabian Jura landscape, the " Salmendinger Kapelle " ( Chapel ) on top of the " Kornbühl "- Mountain

Life was extremely hard in the Swabian Jura.

The Swabian Jura, and Black Forest, are still dotted with small companies turning out high-tech products such as machine tools and medical devices for worldwide consumption in towns of fewer than 10, 000 inhabitants.

Locals in the areas speak the distinct German dialect known as Swabian German, which varies even throughout the Jura.

The Swabian Jura and the neighbouring region have developed from one of the poorest regions of Germany to one of its richest within the past 150 years.

The Swabian Jura are not densely populated by German standards.

* Reutlingen ( called " The gate to the Swabian Jura ")

The towns in the foreland of the Swabian Jura officially don't belong to it.

A good way for tourists to get to know the Swabian Jura is to travel on the Schwäbische Albstraße, a " National Scenic Byway ", leading from Tuttlingen or Trossingen to Nördlingen or Aalen.

The name Jura (, related to Jurassic ) derives from the Jura mountains, of which the Swabian and Franconian plateaux are geographically part.

A number of flutes dating to about 43, 000 to 35, 000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Alb region of Germany.

The history of the region is linked with the history of Ulm and the Swabian Alb.

Across the whole Swabian region, many phrases and grammar are highly localized, even down to the village level ; however, the Swabian dialect of the highland regions is characterised by a sing-song melody, and some of the verb forms are also distinct, not only from Standard German, but also from those of the rest of Swabia.

Born in southwestern Germany, in the region of the Swabian alps, Messerschmidt grew up in the Munich home of his uncle, the sculptor Johann Baptist Straub, who became his first master.

The Rote Wurst ( red sausage ) is a favorite Bratwurst of the Swabian region.

In the north one can see the Hornisgrinde ; in the north-east there's the entire range of the Swabian Alb including the Lemberg mountain, up to the left there's the Hegau volcano region.

It is spoken in Swabia, a region which covers much of Germany's southwestern state Baden-Württemberg, including its capital Stuttgart, as well as the rural area known as the Swabian Alb, and parts of far western Bavaria.

He presumed to be of Swabian origin and was probably born at the end of the 12th century in the Alemannic ( Southwest German ) linguistic region.

* Swabian Alb, a mountainous region within Swabia

Much of Eastern Swabia became part of Bavaria, forming what is now the Swabian administrative region of Bavaria.

Swabian ( Schwäbisch ) is one of the Alemannic German dialects of High German, spoken in the region of Swabia, present in the North-Eastern area of the Alemannic Sprachraum.

Further Austria or Anterior Austria () was the collective name for the old possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-western Germany, including territories in the Alsace region west of the Rhine and in Vorarlberg, after the focus of the Habsburgs had moved to the Duchy of Austria subsequent to the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld.

Heidenheim is situated between Albuch and the Härtsfeld region in the northeast corner of the Swabian Alb where the valley of the Brenz meets the Stubental at the foot of Hellenstein Mountain.

Tuttlingen is located in Swabia east of the Black Forest region in the Swabian Alps.

It is situated in a region called Baar, between the Swabian Alb and the Black Forest.

After the Habsburg dynasty had lost large parts of its original Swabian possessions south of the Rhine to the Swiss Confederacy at the 1386 Battle of Sempach, the remaining Fricktal was administered from the Oberamt Breisgau of Further Austria ( Vorderösterreich ) at Freiburg, while the adjacent Unteraargau region to the south was finally conquered by the Swiss at Bern in 1415.

Every state in Austria has some specialities: In Lower Austria they have poppies, in Burgenland polenta, in Styria pumpkin, in Carinthia's many lakes they have fish, in Upper Austria, dumpling play a vital role, for Salzburg the Salzburger Nockerln are famous ( a Soufflé ), Tyrol has their tyrolean bacon, and Vorarlberg is influenced by the close neighbors Switzerland and the Swabia region in Germany, thus cheese plays a role and cheesy Swabian Spätzle are a specialty there.

The area of heaviest German colonization during this period was in the Swabian Turkey ( Schwäbische Türkei ), a triangular region between the Danube river, Lake Balaton, and the Drava ( Drau ) River.

Indeed, a Gessler family of ministeriales is documented from the 13th century onwards ; however at Wiggwil in the Aargau region, the original homeland of the Habsburgs and the basis for their rise after the extinction of the Swabian House of Hohenstaufen.

* Baar ( region ), a region in southern Germany, between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb