Hercules columns

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The Hercules columns in winter from the east, in the middle the big one, on the right the small Hercules column
Sight in summer
The columns of Hercules with climbers, around 1963
The Hercules Column from the south, the small one on the left, the Great Hercules column on the right

The Great Hercules Column and the Little Hercules Column are two slender rock towers in the Bielatal in Saxon Switzerland . You are in the upper valley between the Swiss mill and the Otto mill . Both rock towers are called natural wonders due to their seemingly fragile structure. With their overhanging summit heads, they are symbols of the upper Biela valley and are among the most famous climbing rocks in the valley.

Naming

The two Hercules columns got their names from the private scholar Carl Merkel . In 1826 he published his work Biela or Description of Western Saxon-Bohemian Schweitz , with which he described the scenic rocky landscape of the upper Biela Valley. Wilhelm Leberecht Götzinger had previously described the landscape of the Biela valley, which was perceived as very picturesque in the Romantic era . For the first time, Merkel added names to many of the Biela Valley's rock towers. In doing so, he proceeded extremely imaginatively, most of his names could not prevail in the subsequent period, with some it is no longer clear which rock structures Merkel was referring to.

One of the few names that has established itself is the name of the Hercules Columns , based on the name used in antiquity for the mountains towering on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar as the pillars of Heracles . The Great Hercules Column is sometimes also referred to as the Northern Hercules Column, the Little Hercules Column as the Southern Hercules Column.

Based on the name of the Hercules Columns, other climbing peaks in the vicinity were given names derived from them, e.g. the Hercules head (Carl Merkel called her a virgin ), the Hercules son and the Hercules wall.

geology

The entire rocky landscape of the Biela valley, in contrast to the rocky areas on the right bank of the river Elbe in Saxon Switzerland, consists of particularly hard labiatus sandstone that belongs to the so-called Schmilka formation. This sandstone represents the oldest layer of the deposits of the Cretaceous Sea, formed in the Turonium , from which the Elbe Sandstone Mountains arose. Within the formation, layers alternate with lower and higher resistance to the erosion processes . In the area of ​​today's summit heads of the Hercules Columns as well as the neighboring peaks and rock faces, there is a particularly resistant layer that led to the formation of the overhanging summit heads, often described as bizarre. Both columns are about 20 meters high, but stand on a rock plinth that forms a valley side about 35 meters high near the Small Hercules Column.

Climbing sport

As the first of the two columns, the Great Hercules Column was climbed in 1904 by Rudolf Nake, F. Goldberger and A. Kliche. Today's Alte Weg is rated with difficulty level V on the Saxon scale. A year later, Hanns Schueller and Oliver Perry-Smith completed the first recognized ascent of the Little Hercules Column. Today's Alte Weg is classified as IV.

To the assessed as particularly rewarding ways count on the Little Hercules pillar of 1923 by Willy Oehmgen erstbegangene , classified with VIIa Südweg and Hercules' rib from the year 1983 by Dieter List, which is classified with VIIb. There are a total of 14 climbing routes on the Small Hercules Column and 8 climbing routes on the Great Hercules Column, ranging in difficulty from IV to VIIIb. Many non-climbers see the Hercules columns as too fragile and unsafe, they are perceived as "wobbly". There is a ban on developing new routes for both peaks.

literature

  • Hans Pankotsch, Dietmar Heinicke: The names of our climbing peaks . Saxon Mountaineering Association, Dresden 2013

Web links

Commons : Columns of Hercules  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The natural wonders of Germany part 1 , Reisen.de, August 16, 2013, accessed on December 25, 2013
  2. ↑ Carl Merkel: Biela or description of the western Saxon-Bohemian Schweitz . Bautzen 1826 ( digitized version , accessed on June 25, 2016).
  3. ↑ a b c Hans Pankotsch, Dietmar Heinicke: The names of our climbing peaks . Saxon Mountaineering Association, Dresden 2013, p. 97
  4. ↑ a b Gerhard Engelmann: In the south of the Barbarine (= values ​​of the German homeland . Volume 3). 2nd Edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1960, pp. 60–61.
  5. ^ Lithostratigraphic units of Germany. Schmilka formation ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Lithostratigrafisches Lexikon Deutschlands. April 22, 2008, accessed December 22, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / litholex.bgr.de
  6. ↑ Dietmar Heinicke (Ed.): Climbing Guide Sächsische Schweiz , volume Bielatal / Erzgebirgs Grenzgebiet . Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-934514-02-2 , p. 47 f.
  7. ↑ Example from a hiking route description ( memento of the original dated December 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wandern-saechsische-schweiz.de
  8. ↑ DAV-Felsinfo: Große Herkulessäule , accessed on January 21, 2018
  9. ^ DAV-Felsinfo: Small Hercules Column , accessed on January 21, 2018

Coordinates: 50 ° 50 '  N , 14 ° 3'  E