Wartturm (crag)

The watch tower is a 20 meter high rock in the Saxon Switzerland, near the Bastion. He stands significantly above the Elbe, just below the local situation of Rathen and dominates the view from the Bastion and Rathen downriver.

On 22 November 2000 it was at the watch-tower to one of the most spectacular rock falls of the past decades in the Saxon Switzerland. In this case, about one-third of the rock broke off, about 450 cubic meters of sandstone with an estimated total weight of 800 tons fell on 60 to 75 meters into the valley. This was the largest amount since rock a rock fall in 1961 at the hive, which also did not have such a large drop height. The cause of a progressive efflorescence a line extending in rock fissure is suspected. A climber who was staying in a cabin below the rock remained unharmed because the boulders a few meters pitched next to the hut.

Despite the loss of large rock outcrops of the watchtower is still a popular climbing peak in the climbing area Saxon Switzerland. The first pronounced climbing ban for the entire summit was canceled after a few months. Climbing in the scarp of the rockslide is however prohibited.

The rock fall on the watch-tower has led to the fact that the State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology of the Free State of Saxony is now examined in more detail by drilling the causes of landslides and the long- term development of the weathering of sandstone in the Saxon Switzerland.

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