It lies in the district of Göttingen in the southeastern corner of the Lower Saxon Hills.

It is located on the southwestern Harz Foreland roughly between Wulften to the northwest, Hattorf am Harz and Pöhlde to the north, Silkerode to the east, Rhumspringe and Gieboldehausen to the south and Bilshausen to the west.

According to the official classification of natural regions of Germany the ridge belongs to the landscape unit of the Eichsfeld Basin in the Weser-Leine Uplands.

The Rotenberg is surrounded by the following other ranges: the Harz Mountains to the north and, somewhat further away, the Ohm Hills to the southeast and the Göttingen Forest to the southwest.

These rivers and the small streams that rise in the hills belong to the catchment area of the Leine, several kilometres to the west.