The ''Hohnekamm'' or ''Hohne Kamm'' is a mountain ridge up to high in the

Harz mountains The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

of central Germany. It is located in the state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

, and is well known for its

rock tower A pinnacle, tower, spire, needle or natural tower (german: Felsnadel, ''Felsturm'' or ''Felszinne'') in geology is an individual column of rock, isolated from other rocks or groups of rocks, in the shape of a vertical shaft or spire. Examples ar ...

s or

tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia Sc ...

s, the ''Hohneklippen''.

Location and surrounding area

The wooded ''Hohnekamm'' lies within the Harz Nature Park in

and within 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 I ...

. It lies around 2 km northeast 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 ...

, a village on the

Kalte Bode The Kalte Bode is the left-hand headstream of the Bode in the High Harz Mountains in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is long. Name The names of the Warme and Kalte Bode ("Warm" and "Cold" Bode) come from their actual temperature differenc ...

river and runs for about 3 kilometres in a northwest-to-southeast direction. The largest town in the area is

Wernigerode Wernigerode () is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,041 in 2012. Wernigerode is located southwest of Halberstadt, and is picturesquely s ...

, 5 km to the northeast. To the east is

Elbingerode Elbingerode is an ''Ortsteil'' of Oberharz am Brocken in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The former town was incorporated into the newly established municipality on 1 January 2010. Geography It is situated in the eastern ...

Drei Annen Hohne Drei Annen Hohne is the name of a small settlement within the municipal area of Wernigerode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The place is located about southwest of the town within the Harz mountains, on the northeastern edge of the Harz National Park. ...

, 2 km southeast of the mountain, is the start of the

Brocken Railway The Brocken Railway (german: Brockenbahn) is one of three tourist metre gauge railways which together with the Harz Railway and Selke Valley Railway form the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways railway network in the Harz mountain range of Germany. It run ...

, a narrow gauge line, that runs along the southern slopes of the ''Hohneklippen'' westwards towards the

Brocken The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is the highest peak in the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak in Northern Germany; it is near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt between the rivers Weser and Elbe. ...

. The ''Hohnekamm'' forms the watershed between the

Holtemme The Holtemme is a long tributary of the river Bode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It rises in the Harz mountains at the eastern foot of the Brocken, descends during its upper course as the Steinerne Renne, a steep stream bed riddled with granite ...

to the north and the

Wormke The Wormke is a river of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, in the Harz Mountains. It is a left tributary of the Kalte Bode, about long. Course The Wormke rises north of Schierke above the ''Jakobsbruch'' at about above sea level in the Harz National P ...

in the south. The region is part of the

The tors

The mountain is 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 undergro ...

, which has formed bizarre

-like rock formations at several places due to

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 saprolit ...

, especially the ''Hohneklippen'' on the upper slopes. The highest of these

rock pinnacle A pinnacle, tower, spire, needle or natural tower (german: Felsnadel, ''Felsturm'' or ''Felszinne'') in geology is an individual column of rock, isolated from other rocks or groups of rocks, in the shape of a vertical shaft or spire. Examples ar ...

s is the high ''Leistenklippe''. West of it is the high ''Grenzklippe'' ("Border Tor"), to the southeast the crest continues on towards the ''Bärenklippe'' ("Bear Tor", ca. ). The southeastern section of the Hohneklippen is calle the ''Hohnekopf'' (ca. ); from here the ski slopes of Drei Annen Hohne stretch eastwards. Lower down, on its southern slopes, is the

Trudenstein The Trudenstein is a rock formation and popular hiker's destination in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. It is located in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. Location and surrounding area The Trudenstein lies beside the Glashütten Way on ...

, another tor with good views.

Brocken Railway

The

runs over the southern slopes of the ''Hohnekamm'' and past the neighbouring mountain of ''Erdbeerkopf''. The line, 19.0 kilometres long and opened in 1898, is a narrow gauge railway that runs from the junction at ''Drei Annen Hohne'' northwest to the Brocken.

Sport

In winter the area is used for

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

and

tobogganing A toboggan is a simple sled traditionally used by children. It is also a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada. In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people (often children) down a hill ...

.http://archiv.abendblatt.de/ha/1993/xml/19930109xml/habxml930103_1510.xml{{dead link, date=December 2020 The ''Leistenklippe'' is checkpoint no. 15 in the

Harzer Wandernadel The Harzer Wandernadel is a system of hiking awards in the Harz mountains in central Germany. The hiker (or mountain biker) can earn awards at different levels of challenge by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and stamping his or ...

hiking trail network.

Legend

According to legend the rugged tors of the ''Hohneklippen'' were once three beautiful young women who were turned to stone here for their pride.

References

External links

Photographs of the tors
Mountains of the Harz Mountains and hills of Saxony-Anhalt Mountains under 1000 metres