is a district in
Lower Saxony ,
Germany . It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of
Harburg ,
Lüneburg ,
Uelzen ,
Celle ,
Hanover ,
Nienburg ,
Verden and
Rotenburg .
Historically the region belonged to the duchy of
Brunswick-Lüneburg and its
Successor State s. The district was established in 1977 by merging the former districts of Soltau and Fallingbostel.
The district includes the western half of the
Lüneburg Heath (''Lüneburger Heide''). Since this landscape is so characteristic for the district, it calls itself "the Heath District". It is named for the two towns of Soltau and Bad Fallingbostel. The latter is the capital, although it has only 11,800 inhabitants and is only the fifth largest place in the district.
