Niederweningen

Niederweningen is a municipality in the district of Dielsdorf in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.HistoryNiederweningen is first mentioned between 1096 and 1111 as Waningen. In 1269 it was mentioned as Nidirunweningin.The railway reached Niederweningen in 1891 with the opening of the Swiss Northeastern Railway's Wehntal line. The line was extended by a further to its current terminus in 1938.In 1890 the most important site of Ice Age animals in Switzerland was discovered in Niederweningen. Particularly the uppermost deposits with the so-called Mammut turf layer were studied up in about 5m depth, and between 1983 and 1985 by three research boreholes to a depth of 21m. In 2003 the remains of a Mammoth were found, and further finds resulted in the establishment of the present Mammutmuseum Niederweningen near the site of the first findings.The psychiatrist Adolf Meyer was born in Niederweningen in 1866.GeographyNiederweningen has an area of 6.9km2. Of this area, 48.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 38.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 13.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.4%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).The municipality stretches along the Surb river through the Wehntal from the northern edge of the Lägern ridge to the new housing developments on the southern face of the Egg.