Although some sources translate the name literally as
Seven Hills, where
sieben is modern German for "seven" and a
Gebirge is a hill range, alternative derivations for the name have been suggested. Three theories exist: • The oldest name was not
Siebengebirge, but
Sieben Berge (
septem montes, seven hills). Depending on the viewpoint near the river Rhine, one notices almost exactly seven hills, which are not always the same and not even the highest. Also, the number
seven used to denote an arbitrary amount of items, was connected to magic and thus had a highly symbolic meaning. This makes it an obvious name for an area that was said to be sinister and impenetrable before the 19th century. • The word
sieben is derived from the word
siefen which, in turn comes from the
Middle Low German word
sîpe "wet depression" or "little stream, brook", the verb
sîpen means "trickle, drip". • The name
Siebengebirge emerged from the word
Siedengebirge which indicated the presence of soap boilers ("Seifensieder"), who were banned from the valleys because boiling soap smelled so bad. == References ==