Sandhöhlen Im Heers

The Sandhöhlen are a natural monument in the German 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 ...

. They are two sand caves known individually as the Große Sandhöhle and Kleine Sandhöhle ("Great Sand Cave" and "Small Sand Cave"). The caves are located in a wooded area called ''im Heers'' below the fortress and crags of

Regenstein The County of Regenstein was a mediaeval State of the Holy Roman Empire, statelet of the Holy Roman Empire. It was ruled by the Duchy of Saxony, Saxon comital House of Regenstein, named after their residence at Regenstein Castle near Blankenburg (H ...

north of the town of

Blankenburg (Harz) Blankenburg (Harz) is a town and health resort in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, at the north foot of the Harz Mountains, southwest of Halberstadt. It has been in large part rebuilt since a fire in 1836, and possesses a castle ...

. It is surmised that a Germanic

thingstead A thing, german: ding, ang, þing, enm, thing. (that is, "assembly" or folkmoot) was a governing assembly in early Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by a lawspeaker. Things took place at regular in ...

was held here in

protohistoric Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in ...

times. On the ''Große Sandhöhle'' is a checkpoint (no. 81) 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 network which was voted by hikers as the most beautiful checkpoint of the year in 2009. {{Harz-geo-stub Blankenburg (Harz) Natural monuments in Saxony-Anhalt