Küsnachter Tobel () is a small river canyon or

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

, respectively, on the southwestern slope of the ''Pfannenstiel'' mountain in the

canton of Zürich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

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 ...

, formed by the Küsnachter Dorfbach (), which drains into

Lake Zurich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

Geography

Located on the southwestern slope of the ''Pfannenstiel'' mountain chain, and originating nearby the

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

Forch respectively historical mountain pass of the same name, the small ''Dorfbach'' stream flows in the ''

Zürichsee Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

'' at the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Küsnacht Küsnacht () is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. History Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as ''de Cussenacho''. Earliest findings of settlement date back to the Stone Age. There are also findi ...

on Zürich lakeshore, forming there a

river delta A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creat ...

and the peninsula on which Küsnacht was partially built. The stream formed in the past thousands of years an about long, but widely just about to wide canyon.

Attractions

The main attraction in the up to incised gorge is the wild, primeval landscape. Sometimes rock slides occur there, the last on 24 April 2013 when a boulder crashed on the pathway. Nevertheless, the pathway is very popular for hiking, usually starting in Forch and ending at the landing gate of the Zürichsee lake transportation company ''

Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft The Lake Zurich Navigation Company (, ZSG) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Zurich () and the river Limmat in Zurich.The company's services connect lake-side towns between Zurich and Rapperswil/ Schmerikon, i ...

'' (ZSG) in Küsnacht. Points of interest include the so-called ''Drachenhöhle'' towards the

Wulp Castle The ruins of Wulp Castle ( or ''Burg Wulp'') is a castle located besides Küsnachter Tobel in the municipality of Küsnacht and the canton of Zurich in Switzerland. It was built during the high Middle Ages. Despite this, the castle is documented ...

(built by the

House of Regensberg The Regensberg family was a family of counts from the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland. They had possessions in the medieval Zürichgau from the probably mid-11th century and became extinct in 1331 AD. With the extinction of the male line, the ci ...

) besides the gorge: The literally ''Dragon's Den'' is a small cave that was washed out of the glacial

Nagelfluh Conglomerate () is a sedimentary rock made up of rounded gravel-sized pieces of rock surrounded by finer-grained sediments (such as sand, silt, or clay). The larger fragments within conglomerate are called clasts, while the finer sediment surrou ...

conglomerate. The so-called ''Dorfbach'' stream is also one of the most important spawning grounds for

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater Salvelinus, char living mainly in lakes in Northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, laker, and grey trout. In Lake Sup ...

, although the number of spawning animals was as of 2013 very modest. Some

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...

s respectively the so-called ''Findlingsgarten'' at the lower end of the gorge towards Küsnacht, as well as the idyllic landscape, are further points of attraction. Towards Küsnacht there is the local historical museum and the historical core of Küsnacht. The museum is a former historical mill, located at the southern entrance of the ravine. The early medieval ''Zehntenhaus'' granary on the lake shore is another attraction to be mentioned.

Historical floods

Protagonist of the idyllic natural spectacle of the Küsnachter Tobel is the so-called ''Küsnachter Dorfbach'', a small stream, but in earlier times very dangerous: The hypocritical rippling through the standardized streambed little water, emerged several times, so a document of 1678 mentions for the first time a major flood with human losses. And again in 1778, after massive rains, the villagers of Küsnacht–Goldbach were caught sleeping, and 63 deaths and great damage to property occurred; after this disaster the natural, meandering stream course through the village was forced in a dead straight channel. Once more 100 years later, after heavy rains, the water accumulated at a too low-lying bridge and formed a breaking roller water, with high damage but without human losses.

Transportation

Forch Forch is a village and a mountain pass (el. ) located in the municipalities of Küsnacht and Maur in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. Geography Forch is located approximately in the southeast of Zürich, nearby Zumikon and Maur. It in ...

is provided by the

Forchbahn The Forch railway (, ''FB'', nicknamed ''Förchler'', ''Frieda'', ''Frieda Bünzli'' by locals) is a local mixed tramway / railway line in the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Zürich. It is owned and operated by the Forchbahn AG, and is branded as ...

tram from Zürich-Stadelhofen (''

Sechseläutenplatz Sechseläutenplatz (literally: ''Sechseläuten'' square) is the largest town square situated in Zurich, Switzerland. Its name derives from the '' Sechseläuten'' (the city's traditional spring holiday), which is celebrated on the square in April. ...

'') or Esslingen, Küsnacht by the

S-Bahn Zürich The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Canton of Aargau, Aargau, Canton of Gla ...

lines

S6 (ZVV) The S6 is a regional railway service of the S-Bahn Zürich on the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV), Zürich transportation network, and is one of the network's services connecting the cantons of Zürich and Aargau. At , trains of the S6 servic ...

and

S16 (ZVV) The S16 is a regional railway service of the S-Bahn Zürich on the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV), Zürich transportation network, and is one of the network's services providing service within the canton of Zürich. At , trains of the S16 ser ...

, as well as by the autobus line 910 and the local bus transportation. In the summer there are about every 30 minutes regular boats from and to Zürich as well as along the lake to

Rapperswil Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...

, run by the

(ZSG).

References

External links