Swabian Jura, Mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

The Swabian Jura is a limestone low mountain range in southwestern Germany that stretches diagonally for around 200 kilometers from southwest to northeast, rising to 1,015 meters (3,330 feet) at Lemberg peak. The terrain consists of gentle high plateaus cut by deep, steep valleys, with the northern side often dropping off sharply and the southern side gradually descending into the Danube basin.

The limestone that forms the range was deposited between roughly 200 and 145 million years ago in a warm, shallow sea that covered much of central Europe. The present landscape took shape through uplift and subsequent erosion over the last few million years, as rivers and weathering carved out the valleys and high plateaus.

The caves around Vogelherd, Hohlenstein-Stadel, Geißenklösterle and Hohle Fels, a few kilometres apart, yielded mammoth, horse-head and water-bird figurines and two lion-man statues over 30,000 years old. Bone flutes of swan and griffon vulture, about 35,000 years old, and a 2004 mammoth-tusk flute of roughly 37,000 years count as the oldest known instruments. The Venus of Schelklingen, the oldest representation of the human body, comes from the same area.

The northwestern escarpment, the Albtrauf, rises about 400 m and is wooded, while the plateau top is flat or gently rolling and drains southeast toward the Danube. Limestone lets rain seep through cracks, so the plateau has almost no rivers or lakes; springs such as the Blautopf and Aachtopf emerge at the foot of the range. The soil is thin, often only about 10 cm of humus with limestone pebbles at the surface.

The porous limestone structure stores very little surface water, so streams and rivers often disappear suddenly underground and reemerge kilometers away. Some of these sunken watercourses form underground cave systems that are open to the public and offer a look into the hidden hydrology of the range.