and flows through the Siegerland to Betzdorf and into the Sieg Elbbach (Lahn) – near Ailertchen to the Lahn Daade – empties between Alsdorf and Grünebach into the Heller Greater streams and brooks: Aubach, Brexbach, Dietzhölze, Erdbach, Fockenbach, Gelbach, Hellerbach, Holzbach, Kerkerbach, Masselbach, Ulmbach. Standing waters Breitenbach Reservoir (Rennerod) Driedorf Reservoir Großer Weiher Fischweiher Heisterberger Weiher Krombach Reservoir Seeweiher near Mengerskirchen Waagweiher Waldsee Maroth Westerwald Lake District Brinkenweiher Dreifelder Weiher (or Seeweiher) Haidenweiher Hausweiher Hofmannsweiher Postweiher Wölferlinger Weiher Wiesensee (reservoir) Weiher is a German word meaning "pond". History Early times Through prehistoric finds it can be determined that the Celts settled in the Westerwald and were using the iron ore deposits in the so-called Hallstatt times (Iron Age, roughly 750 to 500 BC). In all likelihood they came into the area from the Hunsrück. From La Tène times come the Celtic ringwall-girded defensive and sheltering castles which may be found on, among other peaks, the Malberg. Already by La Tène times, Germanic peoples were thrusting in from the east and from the Sieg valley. They came about 380 BC into the Upper Westerwald, bypassing the High Westerwald, seeing it as nothing more than a trackless wooded wilderness, after which they eventually came up against the Rhine in the 2nd century. Roman times Even in the time when the Celts found themselves having to avoid the Germanic invaders by moving to the west, the Romans were also pushing in from the Rhine's left bank to the southwest. However, the Romans only managed to seize a strip of land on the Rhine's right bank and the so-called Rhine-Westerwald; the Westerwald itself lay outside the Roman-occupied area, for the Romans preferred to maintain a little-settled, most likely pathless wilderness as their border. Chatti times The Westerwald's permanent settlement and thereby its territorial history began with the Chatti (Hessians) pushing their way into the area after the Romans were driven out in the 3rd century. Placename endings such as –ar, –mar and –aha ("Haigraha" = Haiger) stemming from the Migration Period ("Völkerwanderung") can still be found now. These lie around the forest's outer edges in basins and dales whose soils and climate were favourable to early settlers, and include, for instance, Hadamar, Lahr and Wetzlar. From the 4th to the 6th century, the settlements from the time of the taking of the land arose in formerly pathless areas, taking endings such as –ingen and