[a] The municipalities of Münstertal, Schönenberg and Kleines Wiesental meet on the summit dome of Belchen which is located in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Even towards the south the mountain drops steeply, its schrofen slopes descending 800 metres into the valley bowl of the Little Wiese near Neuenweg.

The large expanse of rolling plateau in the eastern Black Forest has only survived in small places at the Belchen.

Towards the Rhine Plain and the Blauen mountain the western main crest of the southern Black Forest has been cut into narrow ridges as a result of the marked uplift of the range during the Pleistocene and the erosive work of its streams.

To the north and south, small avalanche bowl glaciers formed, whose maximum extent reached the edge of the Black Forest.

Belchen (Celtic: the radiant) is a name also used for other high points in the neighbouring mountains, including two that are especially striking when covered with snow.

[4] The panorama from the top covers large parts of the Black Forest to the Hornisgrinde, the Vosges, the Jura and, in good weather, the Alps from the Zugspitze to Mont Blanc.

Typical birds include the raven, song thrush, citril finch and water pipit, as well as peregrine falcons, capercaillie, and hazel grouse.

[8] Belchen lies on the West Way, a 285-km footpath maintained by the Black Forest Club that runs from Pforzheim to Basel.