Teufelstisch (Hinterweidenthal)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Devil's Table (german: Teufelstisch) in Hinterweidenthal is a 14 metre high mushroom rock in the German part of the
Wasgau The Wasgau (german: Wasgau, french: Vasgovie) is a Franco-German hill range in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle. It is formed from the southern part of the Palatine Forest and the north ...
region, the southern Palatine Forest in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate). Thanks to its location in the territory of the village of Kaltenbach - formerly part of
Wilgartswiesen Wilgartswiesen is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. Geography The municipality lies in the southern part of the Palatine Forest, the German part of the Wasgau, in the middle of the Palatine Fo ...
– it is often called the Kaltenbach Devil's Table (''Kaltenbacher Teufelstisch''), especially in old literary sources. It is larger and better known than the Devil's Table of Salzwoog, which is only 5 kilometres away to the southwest. The Hinterweidenthal Devil's Table is one of the landscape symbols of the Palatinate and is also the subject of a local legend. In 1947 the rock was portrayed on a Rhineland-Palatinate postage stamp.


Geography

The Devil's Table stands a few hundred metres south of the B 10 road and west of Hinterweidenthal-Kaltenbach on a 312-metre-high ridge, which runs for over two kilometres from
Etschberg Etschberg is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel (district), Kusel Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, German ...
in the southwest to the 324-metre-high in the northeast. The rock towers prominently over the surrounding woods. At night it is lit from the northern side, so that it can be seen from the B 10. At the foot of the hill on which the Devil's Table stands, is a car park, an inn and the Devil's Table Adventure Park (''Erlebnispark Teufelstisch'').


Geology


Stratigraphy

The German term Buntsandstein is used to describe a lithostratigraphic rock unit that consists largely of interbedded sand-, silt- and claystones. These lithologies were sedimented in a large basin covering an area equivalent to that lying between England and Poland in a west-east direction and Scandinavia and
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in the north-south direction. The Dahner Felsenland (Dahn Rockland) is dominated by sandstones that were deposited during the Early Buntsandstein, about 252.2 until 249 Ma before present. This succession - that also forms the Devil’s Table – is locally known as the Rehberg Formation, which is stratigraphically equivalent to the Bernburg Formation of the Central
Germanic Basin The Germanic Basin (german: Germanisches Becken) is a large region of sedimentation in Western and Central Europe that, during the Permian and Triassic periods, extended from England in the west to the eastern border of Poland in the east. To the ...
.


Lithologic description

The circa 150 m thick Rehberg Formation is characterised by alternating hard sandstones – so called “rock zones” and less resistant sandstones referred to as “thin layers“. The rock zones consist of partially silicified, medium- and coarse-grained sandstones, which are in part gravelly. These are commonly massive cross-bedded units with a red to violet colouration, which were deposited mostly in a fluvial environment. The fine-grained “thin layers“ on the other hand show no silicification and indicate a deposition in stagnant water. These layers were  deposited mostly as
aeolian Aeolian commonly refers to things related to either of two Greek mythological figures: * Aeolus (son of Hippotes), ruler of the winds * Aeolus (son of Hellen), son of Hellen and eponym of the Aeolians * Aeolians, an ancient Greek tribe thought to ...
sediment. The lack of
boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...
s and clay in these fine-grained and light brick-red to orange coloured thin layers indicates the absence of water for the most part of the sedimentation process. They represent wind-driven sedimentary deposits in closed drainage basins under arid and hot desert climate conditions. The
provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
area of the sediment was the Gallic land, which bordered the Buntsandstein basin to the west. This uplifted source area stretched from today’s Belgium to the Massif Central in France.


Formation of the Devil’s Table

The Rehberg Formation commonly forms table rock formations such as the Devil’s Table. The siliceous harder rock zones lie on top of the softer thin layers, that are more susceptible to weathering and erosion. The tabletop-like blocks protect the remaining pillars of less resistant material from further erosion. The shape of the Devil’s Table and its thin pillars is defined by preexisting fractures at the upper and lower end of the tabletop. The natural monument of the „Devil’s Table“ represents an important landmark of the Palatinate Forest and was classified as a „National Geotope“ in 2006. In the surrounding are, there are numerous impressive rock formations in the Dahn Rockland, which are also worth a visit!


References


External links


Pfalzbilder: ''Kaltenbacher Teufelstisch''
(photos) {{Coord, 49, 11, 41.65, N, 7, 44, 37.54, E, type:mountain_elevation:275_region:DE-RP, display=title Rock formations of Rhineland-Palatinate Climbing areas of Germany Landforms of Rhineland-Palatinate Palatinate (region) Natural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate