The Feuersteinklippe is a rock formation in the

Harz National Park Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and ...

in central

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the landmark of the nearby village of

Schierke Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode. Situated within the Harz mountain range in the valley of the river Bode, at the rim ...

. The Feuersteinklippe is a

butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word me ...

made of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, not

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

(Feuerstein = "firestone" or flint) as the name suggests. It shows the

spheroidal weathering Spheroidal weathering is a form of chemical weathering that affects jointed bedrock and results in the formation of concentric or spherical layers of highly decayed rock within weathered bedrock that is known as ''saprolite.'' When saprolite ...

typical of the Harz region. The striking rock formation is located at a height of 690 metres and is surrounded by woods. It lies to the north of

Schierke station Schierke station (german: Bahnhof Schierke) is the railway station in the village of Schierke operated by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways on the Brocken Railway in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. Schierke itself lies as the foot of the highe ...

. The name Feuersteinklippe is derived from the Schierker Feuersteinwiesen (Schierke Feuerstein meadows) that lie to the southeast, which in turn were named after the cultic fires or signal beacons originally lit at this spot. An information board on the rocks recalls the visit of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

and the painter, Georg Melchior Kraus, who spent time here on 4 September 1784 in geological studies. The well-known herbal liqueur,

Schierker Feuerstein Schierker Feuerstein is a German herbal liqueur, a half-bitters at a strength of 35% alcohol by volume (Alcohol proof, 61 degrees proof, or US 70 proof), originally produced in the village of Schierke, located in the Harz, Upper Harz region of Sax ...

, which is made in Schierke, is named after the rocks. The label portrays the rock formation. File:Schierke Feuersteinklippe Zugang.jpg, Forest clearing at the rocks File:Feuersteinklippe.jpg, The rocks in winter

Sources

*Gorsemann, Sabine and Kaiser, Christian (2010). ''Harz'', DuMont Reiseverlag Ostfildern, , p. 151 {{Coord, 51.766778, N, 10.676705, E, type:mountain_elevation:690_region:DE-ST, display=title, format=dms Wernigerode Rock formations of Saxony-Anhalt

See also

Sources