The Harz Mountains lie on the northern edge of the German Central Uplands and stand out clearly as a raised block from its surrounding foreland. Due to its abundant mineral resources, the Harz has been a montane industrial area since the Middle Ages at least, so that there was an early scientific interest in the geological structure and relief development since the introduction of the mining academy in Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Although the Harz is one of the best studied mountain ranges, open questions about tectonic evolution, relief genesis and glaciation history still exist. The multiphase uplift of the Variscan basement since the late Cretaceous and changing climate from subtropical during the Palaeogene to cooler conditions in the Pleistocene have led to a complex mountain landscape development. Pedimentation processes and the successive incision of valleys into an elevated planation surface have created an extraordinary variety of landscape elements, distinguished by different types of rocks. Deeply incised V-shaped valleys and gorges at the mountain edge alternate with flat valley floors on the central mountain plateau. Furthermore, rock walls and tors made of granite, quartzite or chert represent specific landscape elements that are often combined with block accumulations. During glaciations, periglacial processes formed straight slopes with cover beds of coarse slope debris, while possible local glaciation in the central high mountains as well as the Scandinavian ice sheets influenced relief development, too. In particular, mining and smelting industry, which was widespread in the Harz, and the associated charcoal burning and water management systems have led to numerous anthropogenically shaped landscape elements.