The Kesselberg near
Edenkoben in the German state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
(
Südliche Weinstraße
Südliche Weinstraße ( pfl, Siedlischi Woischdrooß; en, "Southern Wine Route") is a district (''Kreis'') in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Südwestpfalz, Bad Dürkheim, the district-f ...
county) is a mountain, ,
It is second highest peak in the
Palatine Forest region after the
Kalmit
The Kalmit is the highest peak in the Palatinate Forest and the second highest (after the Donnersberg) in the Palatinate region of Germany. It is and located south of the town of Neustadt an der Weinstraße.
The mountain attracts many tourists ...
(672.6 m) and also the third highest mountain in the
Palatinate region (highest:
Donnersberg
The Donnersberg ("thunder mountain") is the highest peak of the Palatinate (german: Pfalz) region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen and Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after the m ...
686.5 m).
Location
The Kesselberg is located, like the Kalmit, in the mountain range of
Haardt
The Haardt () is a range of wooded, sandstone hills in the state of Rhineland Palatinate in southwestern Germany. The range is some long and lies within the Palatinate Forest (''Pfälzerwald''). Its highest point is the Kalmit, near Maikammer
...
between the Edenkobener valley in the north and the
Modenbach
The Modenbach is a stream, just under {{convert, 30, km long, and a right-hand tributary of the Speyerbach in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Course
The Modenbach rises in the Palatine Forest east of the Palatine Watershed at a heigh ...
valley in the south. From the
Rhine Plain the mountain is hidden behind the
Blättersberg
The Blättersberg near Rhodt unter Rietburg in the Rhenish-Palatine county of Südliche Weinstraße is a mountain, , in the Palatine Forest in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The mountain has a north summit (613.2 m) and a south ...
(618 m). Views over the surrounding regions in the Palatine Forest are blocked by the trees that cover the summit.
Gletschermulden
On the summit plateau are various rocks, named on hiking maps as the ''Gletschermulden'', with striking round depressions in the
Bunter sandstone
The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...
of which they are composed. In addition to an unprovable theory that they were originally
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
sacrifice bowls, there is also a theory that they are glacial
potholes or
mills. However, they would require a thick ice sheet to have covered the region and there is no evidence, such as
glacial stria
Glacial striations or striae are scratches or gouges cut into bedrock by glacial abrasion. These scratches and gouges were first recognized as the result of a moving glacier in the late 18th century when Swiss alpinists first associated them w ...
, anywhere in the Palatine region. It is thus questionable whether this could have been a
periglacial
Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", also referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing of snow in areas of permafrost, the runoff from which refreezes in ice wedges and ot ...
site in the last
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
, as has been posited. A new interpretation suggests the depressions were simply formed by weathering processes in the various layers of sandstone.
The old signpost on the Kesselberg has been replaced by a new one. It discusses the formation of the depressions in both an amusing, but also a scientific, way.
Access
The summit may be climbed from the trail forks at ''Benderplatz'' and ''Kohlplatz''. From the main trail that links both junctions, a smaller footpath branches off, leading to the summit. This footpath was blazed in 1953 by the historian,
Friedrich Sprater Friedrich may refer to:
Names
*Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich''
*Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich''
Other
*Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...
, and named after him. The ''Benderplatz'' may be reached from the ''Lolosruhe'' car park and the ''Forsthaus Heldenstein'' (a former forester's lodge), the ''Kohlplatz'' from the Modenbach valley and the Edenkobener valley near the
Edenkobener Hut.
Gallery
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 049 Kesselberg 662 m.jpg, The Kesselberg seen from the Modenbach valley
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 168 Dr Sprater Pfad Ritterstein 185.jpg, ''Ritterstein
A Ritterstein ("Ritter Stone") is the German name given to markers made of sandstone erected at sites of historic or natural interest in the Palatine Forest, a range of low mountains in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In some cases, gl ...
'' No. 185 on the Dr. Sprater Footpath
File:Kesselberg_schild.jpg, Old signpost on the Kesselberg (July 2005)
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 174 Kesselberg Gletschermulden Tafel.jpg, New signpost on the Kesselberg (May 2012)
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 175 Kesselberg Gletschermulden.jpg, The ''Gletschermulden'', full view
File:2012 Pfälzerwald 176 Kesselberg Gletschermulden.jpg, The ''Gletschermulden'', part view
References
External links
{{Commons category, Kesselberg (Pfalz)
Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate
Mountains and hills of the Palatinate Forest
Mountains under 1000 metres
Südliche Weinstraße