Königstein (Westerhausen)

The king stone from the south direction Westerhausen

The King Stone in the northern Harz foreland is a 189 m above sea level. NN high hill at Westerhausen in the district of Harz in Saxony- Anhalt. He is known for his rock formations of sandstone, camel rock.

Geographical location

The King Stone is located in the northern Harz mountains in the Harz Nature Park / Saxony- Anhalt. It rises north of Westerhausen (eastern district of Thale ) and north of the county road 2358 ( Westerhausen - Börnecke ). Neighboring mountain in the northwest is the 178.1 m high Jätchenberg. To the east, the landscape falls over the coming of Börnecke Boerne Shrouded ditch from ( Börni Gerg ravens ) and the current flowing through Westerhausen Mühlengraben to Zapfenbachstrasse. To the north of both surveys the main road runs 6

Landscape

The King Stone has the form of running in a northwest-southeast direction back, the relatively steep, south-west but much flatter slopes to the northeast. He is mostly covered by deciduous forest. On the southern slope of the king stone wine is grown, it is the most northerly winery in the region Saale -Unstrut. The ridge area is dominated by the eye-catching camel rock, whose name derives from its shape: they are viewed from the south or north, remember two camels lying.

The Camel Rock

The camel rocks consist of hardened sandstone, however, has also very soft and fragile passages. These rock formations created as well as the nearby Devil's Wall by the emergence of the fracture Scholl Mountains resin and the resulting ground displacements in the northern Harz foreland. As with the Devil's Wall is the king stone to a layer rib from the Lower Cretaceous. As a geological feature of the Devil's Stone was first placed under protection in 1932, it is registered as " areal natural monument" since 1997. At the camel rock there are several climbing routes to the difficulty VIIIb ( Saxon scale).

History

The King Stone was probably already used in the Stone Age as a place of worship. Here are Germanic solstice celebrations have taken place, some of which are distributed on the Rock " solar discs " witness. It involves circular cut in the rock formations of approximately 1 m in diameter and larger, which are distributed in the lower northern part of the rock. Some of these artifacts, however, were interpreted as millstones. Also in the immediate vicinity there are several archaeological sites. The last important discoveries were made during the construction of B6n that passes nearby.