SPESSART, a highland forest country of Germany, belonging mainly to the Bavarian province of Lower Franconia, but in the north to the Prussian province of Hesse Cassel, and it is bounded on the S. and W. by the Main, on the E. by the Sinn and on the N. by the Kinzig and Joss. The main ridge of the formation, consisting of gneiss, granite and red sandstone, runs from a point opposite Miltenberg, in a north-westerly direction to the source of the Kinzig near Schlüchtern—a distance of 45 m.—and attains its highest elevation in the Geiersberg (1919 ft.), which lies north of the Rohrbrunn pass, through which runs the main road from Aschaffenburg to Würzburg. The forest, with which it is densely covered, consists of oak, beech, ash and fir, and the scenery, especially on the main side, between Gemünden and Lohr, is impressive. The climate is inclement in winter and oppressively hot in midsummer. The inhabitants are engaged chiefly in woodcutting, raft-making and quarrying, and most of the timber is floated down to Holland. Cobalt, silver, lead and copper are also worked, and the southern and western slopes yield wine of good quality. This beautiful tract of country until recent years was comparatively little known to the tourist, but a club (Spessart Klub) through the establishment of finger-posts and the issue of maps, has indicated the more interesting tours to be followed.
See Bücking, Der nordwestliche Spessart, geologisch aufgenommen (Berlin, 1893); Schober, Führer durch den Spessart (Aschaffenburg, 1904); Wolff, Der Spessart, sein Wirtschaftsleben (ibid., 1905).