The reports contained brief directions using both natural (rivers, lakes, swamps, forests) and man-made (villages, nobility estates, roads, formerly inhabited places) landmarks for navigation.
[2] It also described obstacles and provided locations of good places for rest camps, where to obtain drinking water or fodder for horses.
[2] For example, Wegeberichte mentioned several alka, i.e. sacred grooves or pagan shrines,[5] and illustrated logistical difficulties faced by an invading army.
[3] They were collected, organized, and first published in Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum as Die Littauischen Wegeberichte in 1863.
The publisher, Theodor Hirsch, was the first to try and match place names in Wegeberichte with present-day locations.