The North Palatine Uplands lie – roughly stated – between St. Wendel in the state of Saarland to the west and three towns belonging to Rhineland-Palatinate: Alzey to the east, Kaiserslautern to the south and Bad Kreuznach to the north, although these towns are not actually within the region itself.

A rough guide is the heavily folded ridge north of the Glan river with a height different of as much as 300 metres in place.

The North Palatine Uplands is characterised by numerous mountains, hills and valleys which lend the area sharp variations in height from about 200 to over 600 m above sea level (NN).

[4] However, sometimes the term alte Welt just refers to a strip of land on the border of the districts of Kusel and Kaiserslautern, which is roughly demarcated by the 420, 270 and 48 federal highways and the A 6 and A 63 motorways.

Important places are the county towns of Kirchheimbolanden and Kusel, and the collective municipalities of Alsenz, Altenglan, Lauterecken, Meisenheim, Rockenhausen, Winnweiler and Wolfstein.