The Großer Beerberg is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

, , whose summit is the highest point in the

Thuringian Forest The Thuringian Forest (''Thüringer Wald'' in German), is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side i ...

and the state of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. It is located between the three villages of Heidersbach, Goldlauter and

Gehlberg Gehlberg is a village and a former municipality in Thuringia, Germany. Formerly in the district Ilm-Kreis, it is part of the town Suhl Suhl () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located SW of Erfurt, NE of Würzburg and N of Nuremberg. With ...

in the borough of

Suhl Suhl () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located SW of Erfurt, NE of Würzburg and N of Nuremberg. With its 37,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest of the six urban districts within Thuringia. Together with its northern neighbour-town Zella- ...

. The mountain is made of

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

(quartz porphry) that was formed through volcanic processes in the Rotliegendes rock of the Oberhof Formation, about 280 million years ago,Lützner, H., Andreas, D., Schneider, J.W., Voigt, S. & Werneburg, W. (2012): Stefan und Rotliegend im Thüringer Wald und seiner Umgebung. In: Deutsche Stratigraphische Kommission (publ.; coordination and production: H. Lützner & G. Kowalczyk für die Subkommission Perm-Trias): Stratigraphie von Deutschland X. Rotliegend. Teil I: Innervariscische Becken. Schriftenreihe der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften 61: 418–487. and which was uplifted over the surrounding sediments to form 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 ...

. Between the summit of the Beerberg and that of its eastern neighbour, the Schneekopf (978 m), the second highest mountain of Thuringia, is a 60-metre-deep

col In geomorphology, a col is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks.Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, p. 103. . It may also be called a gap. Particularly rugged and forbidding co ...

. To the west is the Sommerbachskopf (941 m). On the summit of Beerberg is one of the few

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generall ...

s of the Thuringian Forest. Until the end of the 1980s there was an observation tower on the mountain. A few years ago, a small platform was again established below the summit at ''Plänckners Aussicht'', which offers an outstanding view to the south and southwest. The section of the

Rennsteig The () is a ridge walk as well as an historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in Central Germany. The long-distance trail runs for about from and the valley in the northwest to and the ...

long-distance path between Oberhof and

Schmücke The Schmücke is a ridge of hills in Thuringia, Germany. Geography Together with the Hohe Schrecke, the Finne (hills), Finne and the Hainleite, the Schmücke borders the northern rim of the Thuringian Basin. It lies between Hauteroda, Oberheldrun ...

runs across the mountain. The nearest town is

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beerberg, Grosser Mountains of Thuringia Thuringian Forest

See also

References

External links