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The Vogelsberg (some 100 km in diameter) came into being some 17 to 13 million years ago. There was no central crater, the lava was pressed to the surface in many long fissures and poured out on hundreds of meters of sandstone. In this block of basalt are enclosed layers of clay and tuff. Smaller chimneys broke through and formed domes typical of this landscape.
Blocks of basalt on the Rehberg above Sichenhausen.
Erosions – most of all water – shaped its actual appearance - there are plateaus, hollows, deep valleys and layers of debris. Hard stones escaped this change; they divide the valleys and jut out in the shape of strange objects. They are often called natural monuments.
In 1865 Theodor Bindewald described the Vogelsberg as follows: The Vogelsberg can be compared to a fresh and sound looking maid from a village that has kept her original type. In comparison to the proud and over refined city-dweller, dressed in wearing velvet and silk garments the unspoiled (pure) taste, the loyal eye, the glowing cheek and the naïve, gay and coquettish character of a child of nature can please.
Bindewald goes on telling that many a traveller has been travelling about without finding the Vogelsberg. And he leaves it to the reader to inform himself about expanse and location of this wood land and mountain.
Basalt at the Klöshorst above Grebenhain.
In 1894 Otto Buchner assembled mountain peaks in his "Guide through the Vogelsberg" in the name of the "Vogelsberger Höhenclub". We don’t want to comment the names of the peaks chosen by the author:
(Translated from German by Heidi M. Schneider)
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