The Harz Mountains rise from the great plain of secondary and tertiary formations in the western part of Prussia, about 130 miles inland from the seaboard at the mouth of the Elbe. Like the Thüringer Wald and other adjoining ranges, the Harz trends in an approximately east-south-east and west-north-west direction, and resembles on the map an elongated ellipse with a northern flattened side some 50 miles in length. It has been compared to a single mountain with large shoulders, culminating in the celebrated Brocken, 8,746 ft. in height. A line drawn through the Brocken from north to south roughly divides the region into two parts.