The Großer Zschirnstein () is the highest hill in the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

part of the

Elbe Sandstone Mountains The Elbe Sandstone Mountains, also called the Elbe Sandstone Highlands (, ; , ), are a mountain range straddling the border between the state of Saxony in southeastern Germany and the North Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, with about three-q ...

Origin of the name

The name appears to be derived from the Slavic root word for "black".

Location and area

There are two climbing peaks on the Großer Zschirnstein - the Großer and Kleiner Zschirnsteinturm ("Great" and "Little Zschirnstein Tower"). There is also the ''Südwand (IV)''

climbing route A climbing route () is a path by which a Climbing, climber reaches the top of a mountain, a rock face or an ice-covered obstacle. The details of a climbing route are recorded in a climbing guidebook and/or in an online climbing-route database. De ...

that ends directly at the highest point on the hill. This climbing route is one of the three exceptions to Saxon climbing regulations which state that climbing of massifs is generally forbidden. On the south summit, near the viewing point, a Nagel Column (''Nagelsche Säule'') has stood since 1865. It recalls August Nagel, the head of survey in Saxony in the 19th century. The survey was carried out using

triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle m ...

. Other trig points in the area are located ''inter alia'' on the Raumberg, the

Lilienstein Lilienstein is a highly distinctive mountain in Saxon Switzerland, in Saxony, southeastern Germany, and was once the site of a Bohemian castle. It is one of the few table mountains on the east of the river Elbe and constitutes the symbol of the ...

, the Cottaer Spitzberg and the Hoher Schneeberg. The column on the Großer Zschirnstein was lost around 1900. In May 2011 a replica was erected in its place.

Geology

This typical table hill is made of sandstone. On the summit plateau is a

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

basaltic Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron ( mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% ...

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a Die (manufacturing), die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing pro ...

which was quarried in a small quarry in order to win gravel.

View

The following hills, rock formations and settlements can be seen from the Großer Zschirnstein (from northeast through south to northwest): Falkenstein, Schrammsteine, Tanečnice (''Tanzplan''), Großer Winterberg, Zirkelstein,

Kottmar The Kottmar () is a mountain in Saxony, southeastern Germany. It is part of the Upper Lusatian Highlands (''Oberlausitzer Bergland''). Its elevation is 583m. The Kottmar is an extinct Volcano from the Tertiary and made up of Phonolite. At the ...

, Prebischtor, Mezní Louka (''Rainwiese''),

Vlčí hora The Vlčí hora (German: ''Wolfsberg'', 591 m) is one of the most prominent peaks in the lowlands of the Šluknov Hook (''Šluknovsko'') in the Czech Republic. Location and area The Vlčí hora is located in the Šluknov Hook, six kilometres wes ...

(''Wolfsberg''), Jedlová (''Tannenberg''), Pěnkavčí vrch (''Finkenkoppe''), Studenec (''Kaltenberg''), Zlatý vrch (''Goldberg''),

Růžovský vrch The Růžovský vrch () is a mountain in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in the Czech Republic. The summit is located in the municipality of Růžová in the Ústí nad Labem Region. The mountain is protected as a national nature reserve named Rů ...

(''Rosenberg''),

Ještěd Ještěd (; ) is the highest mountain of the Ještěd–Kozákov Ridge in the north of the Czech Republic, at . It is the symbol of the city of Liberec. On the summit is the Ještěd Tower restaurant, hotel and television tower, designed by Kare ...

(''Jeschken''), Klíč (''Kleis''), Bezděz (''Bösig''), Buková hora (''Zinkenstein'') (with its prominent TV tower), Lovoš (''Lobosch''), Kletečna (''Kletschen''),

Milešovka Milešovka is with its 837 m the highest mountain of České Středohoří, Czech Republic. The height difference between the foot and summit is 300 metres. Alexander von Humboldt claimed the view to be the third nicest view in the world.

(''Milleschauer''),

Děčínský Sněžník The Děčínský Sněžník () is a mountain in the Czech Republic. At above sea level, it is the highest peak of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Geography Děčínský Sněžník is located in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in the Ústí nad Labem ...

(''Hoher Schneeberg''),

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Air crash

On 14 February 2010 around 8.20 pm a Cessna Citation 550 light aircraft crashed into the southern flank of the hill in a craggy area. The aircraft belonged to the Czech airline,

Time Air Time Air was an airline in Canada founded in 1966 by businessman Walter “Stubb” Ross from Lethbridge in Alberta. It was called Lethbridge Air Service before becoming Time Airways Ltd. in 1969, which was later shortened to Time Air Ltd. I ...

, and was under way from

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The two pilots were killed. According to an evaluation of the

voice recorder A dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorder. The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark of the American Graphophone ...

the cause of the crash was an

aerobatic Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aeroplane" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and gl ...

manoeuvre (

aileron roll The aileron roll is an aerobatic maneuver in which an aircraft does a full 360° revolution about its longitudinal axis. When executed properly, there is no appreciable change in altitude and the aircraft exits the maneuver on the same heading ...

) for which the aircraft is not authorised. Sächsische Zeitung dated 3 March 2010

References

External links

Photos of the Großer Zschirnstein
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zschirnstein, Grosser Hills of Saxony Mountains of Saxon Switzerland Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna Rock formations of Saxon Switzerland