Skip to content
EntityQ1545475· pop 8· linked from 6 articles

Greifensteine

Sign in to save

Also known as Greifenstein

The Greifensteine is a rock tower in the Ore Mountains, Germany, between the towns of Geyer, Ehrenfriedersdorf and Jahnsbach. The highest of the seven granite rocks reaches 731 m. Another six rock towers were demolished by quarrying, which ended in 1923.

~3 min read

Encyclopedic overview

6 sections
Contents
  • Geology
  • Mineral finds
  • History
  • Tourism
  • Stülpner-Höhle
  • References

The Greifensteine is a rock tower in the Ore Mountains, Germany, between the towns of Geyer, Ehrenfriedersdorf and Jahnsbach. The highest of the seven granite rocks reaches 731 m. Another six rock towers were demolished by quarrying, which ended in 1923.

== Geology == Geologically, the Greifensteine is the top of a pluton. During the Variscan orogeny, magma intruded along structural zones, but cooled and solidified before reaching the Earth surface. When the Erzgebirge block raised, the resulting granite formation raised with it. The surrounding softer material eroded and the harder granite remained, creating the tors of the rock formation. The deposition of ores associated with the intrusion gave the area its name (Ore Mountains).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Greifensteine” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map

2 mapped locations

Available in 6 languages

via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0