Nashville Basin

Travelers leaving Nashville in a northerly or easterly direction will soon begin the climb up the escarpment that marks the bordering geographic/geologic province, the Highland Rim and further eastwards, the Cumberland Plateau.

The only downhill routes leaving the area follow the course of the Cumberland River as it flows northwest toward Ashland City and Clarksville, Tennessee.

[citation needed] The Inner Basin of the flattest terrain and most limestone-derived soil chemistry is located to the south and east of Nashville, primarily in the counties of Marshall, Rutherford, Wilson, and Bedford.

Supposedly the underlying rock weathers to a soil particularly suited to the growing of the sorts of grasses most favored by horses.

Limestone glades (or cedar glades), located to the east of Nashville, primarily in Wilson and Rutherford Counties, are open areas where the flat limestone rock is denuded of overlying soil or nearly so, provide an environment for flora unlike any other in the world.