The Devil's Table () in Hinterweidenthal is a 14 metre high

mushroom rock A mushroom rock, also called rock pedestal, or a pedestal rock, is a naturally occurring rock whose shape, as its name implies, resembles a mushroom. The rocks are deformed in a number of different ways: by erosion and weathering, glacial action ...

in the German part of the

Wasgau The Wasgau (, ) is a France, Franco-Germany, German Mountain range, hill range in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French departments of France, departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle (department), Moselle. It is formed from the south ...

region, the southern

Palatine Forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The forest is a designated nature park () covering 1,771&n ...

in the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

). 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 For ...

– 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 municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kusel-Altenglan, who ...

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 The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphy, allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the Subsurface (geology), subsurface ...

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in a west-east direction and

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

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 The Bernburg Formation is a geologic formation in Germany. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Ca ...

of the Central

Germanic Basin The Germanic Basin () 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 south it is bounded by 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 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 ...

s and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

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 () 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 in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, p ...

area of the sediment was the Gallic land, which bordered the

basin to the west. This uplifted source area stretched from today’s

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

to the Massif Central in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

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 The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a List of landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate, low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate (region), Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatina ...

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