Tyssaer Wände

Tisa Walls ( Czech Tiské stěny ) is called a rock town in the west of the Bohemian Switzerland, near the border with the scenic Ore Mountains. The area near the eponymous Tisa ( Tisá ) with its up to 30 m high cliff is one of the Bohemian Switzerland of the biggest tourist attractions. The Tisa Walls and also the neighboring Bürschlitzwände ( Bürschlické stěny ) are available as a national nature reserve nature reserves.

Tourist use

A starting point for a visit to the rock maze is located at the foot of the walls, Tisa Tisa community, from the center of a hiking path leads to the entrance. To enter into the labyrinth of rocks an entrance fee is required. There is a nature trail that leads in the form of a figure eight through the bizarre rocks with their imaginative names.

The area is also known as traditional climbing area. The opening for climbing began around 1908 by German climbers from Dresden and was continued after the Second World War from the mid-1950s by Czech climbers. Today the climbing sports development is considered to be largely completed. The most significant peaks are climbing tower Dogg, Decapitated Major, Kurt towers and Janus head. The formerly located in the Bürschlitzwänden major climbing peaks Neuber tower held the progressive erosion in 1981 was no longer and collapsed.

Topography and Geology

The Tisa Walls are located at an altitude of about 600 meters above the sea. They form a curved line rocks arranged in series on the southwestern edge of the sandstone deposits from the Elbe Sandstone Mountains from Erzgebirgsabbruch on Czech territory. Approximately one kilometer west of them stands on the outskirts of Tisá at the coarse - grained muscovite - biotite -and medium - orthogneiss of the eastern Erzgebirgsraumes. This also underlines the slope south of the village a little to the east.

The rocks have in the perpendicular to a common vertical fracture, which includes many places the whole rock height. Horizontal Auswitterungen can be found in the upper regions and have created some bizarre formations, such as the porcini mushroom called and accessible rock. Above the town are distinctive Great Tisa stones, consisting of a northern and southern rock front along a still largely compact plateau. The western and there angled to the northwest rock area is known as Small Tisa stones. They are stronger and less dissected.

The rocks Tisa Walls consist of a predominantly medium -grained sandstone of the lower to middle Turonian Cretaceous. They belong lithostratigraphically the Weissenberger formation at ( Bělohorské souvrství ) in the system of the Bohemian Cretaceous. The nearby northern and southern environment Tisa Walls is covered by diluvial sediments of clay, sand and gravel containing block.

In the sandstone can be found on narrow layer horizons greater concentrations of iron minerals that mark as a yellow to reddish streaks predominantly horizontal. Are conspicuous in many places in the lower visible rocky areas small and large cavity as well as isolated tunnel with an oval cross-section, whose walls are often covered with sinter deposits. They are a legacy of solution processes in sandstone. In areas of strong weathering the strong stratification at small distances can be clearly seen. These features of the cross-bedding occur relatively frequently.

Lintel blocks in the Great Tisa stones

Weathering forms in a tunnel

The Janus head

The landmark Tisa Walls: stone mushroom and turtle

The Dogg tower

The Dogg tower