Caves of Germany

Germany world heritage

thumb|right|Blautopf with the bright limestone sediments underwater thumb|Blautopf with hammer mill The Blautopf (, ) is a spring that is considered the source of the river Blau in the karst landscape on the Swabian Jura's southern edge. It is located in Blaubeuren, Alb-Donau-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (approximately west of Ulm).

thumb|right|Aachtopf historical postcard, 1910 The Aachtopf () is Germany's biggest karst spring, south of the western end of the Swabian Jura near the town of Aach. It produces an average of 8,500 litres per second. Most of the water stems from the River Danube where it disappears underground at the Danube Sinkhole, north near Immendingen and about north near Fridingen. The cave system has been explored since the 1960s, but as of 2020 only a small part has been discovered due to a large blockage after a few hundred metres.

cave in Germany

cave in Niederstotzingen, Germany

dripstone cave in Germany

Geissenklösterle () is an archaeological site of significance for the central European Upper Paleolithic, located near the town of Blaubeuren in the Swabian Jura in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany. First explored in 1963, the cave contains traces of early prehistoric art from between 43,000 and 30,000 years ago, including some of the oldest-known musical instruments and several animal figurines. Because of the historical and cultural importance of these findings, in 2017 the site became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura.

cave in Germany

cave in Germany

cave group in Bavaria, Germany

show cave in Germany

cave in Germany

Hohlenstein-Stadel is a cave located in the Hohlenstein cliff (not to be confused with the Hohle Fels) at the southern rim of the Lonetal (valley of the Lone) in the Swabian Jura in Germany. While first excavations were started after the second half of the 19th century, the significance of some of the findings was not realized until 1969. The most significant finding was a small ivory statue called the Löwenmensch, which is one of the oldest pieces of figurative art ever found.

cave

cave in Germany

cave

show cave in Germany

cave in Rübeland, Oberharz am Brocken, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

pit cave

cave in Germany

public cave and geology museum in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany

thumb|Cave openings at Volkmarskeller in the Harz Volkmarskeller is the name of a cave that used to have a church next to it in the vicinity of Blankenburg (Harz) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

show cave in Germany

cave in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

cave in Germany

cave in Germany

The Heimkehle is one of two great gypsum caves in Germany that are accessible as show caves. It lies on the southern edge of the Harz Mountains between Rottleberode and Uftrungen, east of Nordhausen, right on the state border between Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. The cave may be visited as part of a 45-minute-long guided tour.

The Marienglashöhle is a show cave situated in the Thuringian Forest. While it features natural caverns, it primarily consists of cavities resulting from historical gypsum and copper mining activities. It is thus managed and presented as both a cave and a show mine. This geological site is designated as a geological natural monument. Positioned between the towns of Friedrichroda and Bad Tabarz, the Marienglashöhle is easily accessible. Visitors can find a large parking lot along Federal Highway 88, and there is also a Thuringian Forest Railway named after the cave nearby. Guided tours are avai

cave in Germany

cave

The Blauhöhle is the largest known cave system in the Swabian Alps in southern Germany. The Blauhöhle presumably originated in a time when the Danube still flowed through the Blau valley. Since the shifting of the Danube, several small rivers, the Schmiech, the Ach, and the Blau, have flowed through this valley. The cave system begins about 21 meters under water at the base of the Blautopf. It continues west and northwest, rising and falling several times until after a horizontal distance of about it comes above the level of ground water and opens into the second big air-filled chamber. The ma

The Brillenhöhle (, literally spectacles cave) is a cave ruin, located west of Ulm on the Swabian Alb in south-western Germany, where archaeological excavations have documented human habitation since as early as 30,000 years ago. Excavated by Gustav Riek from 1955 to 1963, the cave's Upper Paleolithic layers contain a sequence of Aurignacian, Gravettian and Magdalenian artifacts. In 1956 the first human fossils were discovered within a fireplace in the center of the cave, a discovery which made important contributions to the foundational understanding of the Magdalenian culture of central Euro