A trade and military road was already mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography about 150 AD, parts of it formed the medieval Westphalian Hellweg trade route, vital for the transport of salt and crops, and the course of the Via Regia, the Ottonian "royal road" trough the Holy Roman Empire from Aachen to Magdeburg.
The Hellweg Börde (German: Hellwegbörde) refers to the countryside and natural region on the southern edge of the Westphalian Lowland in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which embraces the old Hellweg trading route cities and towns of Dortmund, Unna, Werl and Soest extending to Salzkotten and from there in an ever narrower strip to its northeastern tip at Schlangen on the edge of the town of Bad Lippspringe.