Nebra lies between Querfurt and Naumburg on the Unstrut river in the west of Burgenlandkreis district.

Neighboring towns are Querfurt, Barnstädt and Steigra (all three in Saalekreis) to the north, Karsdorf to the east, Bad Bibra to the south and Kaiserpfalz to the west.

The oldest historical documents mentioning Nebra date back to 876.

In 1962, four Magdalenian figurines were found near Nebra from the late Upper Paleolithic, which belong to the oldest known artwork in Saxony-Anhalt.

It only became public in 2002 when the finders tried to sell it and were eventually arrested following a sting operation in Basel, Switzerland.