The Taennchel rises at the East of France, in the département of Haut-Rhin (region Alsace), halfway between Strasbourg to the North and Mulhouse to the South, around 60 km (40 mi) from both cities.

The peak of the mountain, situated opposite to the Haut-Koenigsbourg, in the massif des Vosges, separates the valley of Ribeauvillé from the val de Lièpvre on a surface of about 800 hectares.

[1] On the north-east of the Taennchel hides the village of Thannenkirch, and south from the mountain can be reached the old glass arts of the Ribeaupierre which overhang the rocky blocks of the Mittelberg (about 600 metres), the Venuskopf and the Schelmenkopf (905 m).

The forests of the Hury, Hinterwald and Kaelblin were part of the goods of the priory of Lièpvre until the high Middle Age as shown by the Charlemagne charter signed in 774.

According to Robert Forrer, a famous archaeologist who studied the Mont Sainte-Odile between 1898 and 1899 and published several books or articles devoted to medieval time, "Taennchel" would come from the Gallic word dunon or dunom which meansfortified wall.