Between the Swiss and the Franconian Jura, the Swabian Jura (Alb) is the central part of a Jura chain stretching right through central Europe. Bordered by the Black Forest and Baar region to the south-west, the upper Neckar valley to the north, the Ries crater to the east and the Danube to the south, the Swabian Alb runs rights across Baden-Württemberg over a length of approx. 220 km and at a breadth of up to 80 km. It is a range of secondary mountains rising up from the surrounding countryside, reaching a height of between 700 and 1000 metres above sea level at ist northern edge and between 450 and 500 metres above sea level at ist southern edge and towards the Danube.