VII. Santok is located in the Gorzów Valley which belongs to the longest Toruń-Eberswald glacial valley in the European lowlands. The withdrawal of the last ice sheet of the Baltic glaciation of the Poznań phase (from approx. 15,000 to 11,700 years ago) is time „0” for the landscape of this basin.
The hillfort in Santok was situated in the narrowing of the valley, which is about 17 km long. It currently rises up to 8 m above the level of the surrounding terrace and is „sunk” in flood deposits from the last 1200 years.
In the Middle Ages, the environmental conditions around Santok were different from today. The bottom of the valley was filled with numerous branches of the Warta and Noteć rivers. The rivers were meandering. On one of the sections of the valley – at the confluence of the Warta and the Noteć, e.g., at the height of Santok – there were extensive swamps and peat bogs. A specific feature of the landscape of the aforementioned valley area is the presence of dunes with relative heights of up to 40 m. In such conditions, a sandy elevation was formed at the bottom of the valley – an island surrounded by the arms of the Warta and Noteć rivers, on which a settlement was established first, and then a gord in Santok.
Three or four channels of each of the rivers in Santok intertwined and mixed their waters – depending on the amount of water in each river basin. Santok is the name that reflects the nature of the hydrography and topography of this area – „sątok” means the connection (basin) of two rivers, which was located to the west of the city, surrounded by the Noteć River to the north and the Warta River to the south. After the great flood in the 18th century, the waters of these rivers merged on the eastern side of the settlement. The final course of their channels was formed by man – the current location of the mouth of the Noteć to the Warta is artificially created.
