Calenberg Land  The Calenberg Land () is a historic landscape southwest of Hanover in Germany, roughly formed by the countryside between the Leine and the Deister hills. The name of this region comes from the Principality of Calenberg ruled the area during the Middle Ages with its seat at Calenberg Castle near Pattensen. Today Calenberg Land covers a geographical area of about 20 x 30 km. It lies on the left bank of the river Leine and is bordered to the west by the hills of the Deister, Kleiner Deister and Osterwald. Its northern boundary is Hanover and the line of the A 2 motorway towards Wunstorf. Its name is not derived from the hill known as the Kalenberg on the Deister. The region includes the Calenberg Loess Börde ("Calenburger Lössbörde") which was formed during and after the Weichselian glaciation. Strong north winds deposited the loess soil in layers between 0.2 –2 m thick, the upper layers of which became loam. The area is heavily dominated by arable farming as a result of its fertile soils. The elevations of the Marienberg, crowned by Schloss Marienburg (135  m AMSL), Süllberg (199 m), Benther Berg (173 m), Gehrdener Berg (154 m) and Stemmer Berg (122 m) dominate the otherwise gently rolling hills. Under the Calenberg Land lie natural resources which were already being used in the Middle Ages. There are coal deposits in the Deister, potash salts, which were mined at Ronnenberg and Benthe, sandstone and limestone in the Deister and Kleine Deister, clay for baking bricks and sand and gravel in the river terraces of the Leine. The towns of the Calenberg Land developed in the Middle Ages as the ruling classes conferred self-administration and market rights. All of them remained farming towns, in which many of the inhabitants continued to work on the land. Whilst today the majority of population of the Calenberg Land commutes into Hanover, Hanover's citizens use the region as their local recreation area. The present-day geographical region of Calenberg Land roughly corresponds to the Germanic area of Marstemgau which was ruled by the House of Billung in the Early Middle Ages. In the 12th century various fiefdoms emerged ruled by noble families from the region who were enfeoffed by the bishops of Minden and Hildesheim.