Melibokus

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Melibokus
Melibokus - view from Auerbach Castle

Melibokus - view from Auerbach Castle

height 517.4  m above sea level NHN
location Hessen , Germany
Mountains Odenwald
Dominance 6.9 km →  Knörsch Hill
Notch height 227 m ↓  Balkhausen
Coordinates 49 ° 43 '30 "  N , 8 ° 38' 13"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 43 '30 "  N , 8 ° 38' 13"  E
Topo map LAGIS Hessen
Melibokus (Hesse)
Melibokus
particularities Observation tower , radio mast
Template: Infobox Berg / Maintenance / TOPO-MAP

The Melibokus (or Melibocus ; also Malschen or Malchen and formerly called Spitzberg ) is 517.4  m above sea level. NHN high mountain in the Odenwald near Zwingenberg in Hesse and thus the highest mountain on the southern Hessian mountain road .

etymology

The mountain name is passed down as mons malscus in 1012 . The older mountain name Malschen was replaced by the scholarly name Melibocus , because the name ίηλοβοκον ( Mēlíbokon ) for the Harz, mentioned in the writings of Ptolemy , was mistakenly seen as the name of this mountain in the Odenwald and Malschen was replaced by the Latinized form of the Greek name: Melibocus or Melibokus , which eventually became naturalized.

geography

location

Map of Bensheim with Melibokus northeast of Auerbach

The mountain is located on the western edge of the Odenwald above the mountain road between Darmstadt in the north and Heidelberg in the south, immediately east of Zwingenberg, exactly on the border between Bensheim (district Auerbach ) and Alsbach-Hähnlein . It rises from afar visible above the Upper Rhine Plain . Its size and cone shape result from the local geology ( Pluton , surrounded by cones of weathered debris), which founded the UNESCO Geopark .

To the north-north-west stands the Alsbacher Schloss on one of its foothills , to the south of the mountain on the Auerberg (345.9 m) the Auerbacher Schloss .

On the top of the mountain there is a radio tower that was formerly used by the military and a lookout tower .

geology

The Melibokus is a massif of the Flasergranitoidzone in the crystalline Odenwald . It is broken by cracks running through WO and NS, into which magma has penetrated from below and crystallized. This resulted in the formation of dike rocks , v. a. dark malchites (e.g. the cliffs on the summit) and light Alsbachites. They are typical phenomena of sub-volcanism and have features of volcanic rocks such as basalt and rhyolite , but because of their solidification in the surrounding basement they belong to the deep rocks .

Natural allocation

The Melibokus belongs in the natural spatial main unit group Odenwald, Spessart and Südrhön (No. 14), in the main unit Vorderer Odenwald (145) and in the subunit Melibocus-Odenwald (145.0) to the natural area Melibocusmassiv (145.00). The natural area that extends from the Mühlbachtal in the south with the Auerberg rising to the northwest over the summit of the Melibokus and the Tannenberg to the north to the Elsbachtal east of Seeheim is 8.51  km² in size.

Summit area

View from the observation tower to the east to the radio tower

Navigation and communication systems

The old Melibokusturm was built in 1772 by Landgrave Ludwig IX. Built by Hessen-Darmstadt as a lookout tower and used as an air traffic control point before it was destroyed in 1945. On a night flight route map from 1936, this point, marked as “flight route fire”, is on the route from Frankfurt to Darmstadt to Stuttgart . In the map description, its coordinates are given as 49 ° 43 '33 "  N , 8 ° 38' 14"  E ( Bensheim district , Starkenburg province ). The “fire” was an electrically operated rotating spotlight (similar to a sea lighthouse) whose flashing light was visible for 0.2 s after a 3.8 second break  . It was maintained by Signaldienst GmbH, a forerunner of today's DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH. The tower light was at a height of 28.4 m above the mountain top; it could be sighted about 65 km away. When the Allies moved in in 1945, the tower was blown up by two 18-year-olds. After the Second World War , many visible beacons became " radio beacons ", which broadcast their information day and night by means of high-frequency waves. The task of the radio beacon was omitted by the satellite navigation, today a flashing light is again in operation as a pure collision protection at night. After the war, on the summit of Melibokus there was still a radio relay station (X-Ray Sierra and X-Ray Uniform) of the United States Army called Rover / Site 4 and 6, with an associated concrete or transmitter mast, later converted into a radio relay station, which was surrounded and fenced in by a barracks . After switching to automatic operation (without permanently present staff), after the departure of many US units from 1990 onwards, the antennas and other radio-technical systems were completely removed by 2007, the accommodations by 2008. What was left was the high concrete tower, which today serves as a transmission mast for local Internet providers.

Observation tower

As a replacement for the old observation tower, built in 1772 and destroyed by the Wehrmacht on March 27, 1945 during the Second World War in the sight of approaching American soldiers, a new one was built on Melibokus in 1966 by the neighboring communities of Bensheim, Alsbach-Hähnlein and Zwingenberg , 22 m high observation tower made of concrete with dining room in the base building and renovated in 2010/11. The tower and restaurant are open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 11 a.m. From the tower the view is free over the Alsbacher Schloss , the Rheingraben and Rheinhessen up to Donnersberg , Soonwald , Hunsrück and Taunus . In the southwest you can see the Palatinate Forest and, if the visibility is good, the Vosges . When the air is very clear, the view to the south even extends to the northern Black Forest .

  • The summit of Melibokus on a postcard from 1897

  • The Melibokus Tower on a postcard from 1905

  • The new observation tower built in 1966

Hang glider

A ramp on the top of the rock face north of the summit serves as a starting point for experienced hang-glider pilots (hang-gliders). The rock face is also a nice lookout point.

  • This ramp serves as a take-off point for hang-glider pilots (hang gliders)

  • The ramp with the view

Protected areas

The Melibokus is located in the fauna-flora-habitat area Kniebrecht, Melibocus and Orbishöhe near Seeheim-Jugenh., Alsb.u.Zwing. (FFH no. 6217-305; 9.5398 km²), a Natura 2000 area. On the western slope of the Melibokus above Zwingenberg between Orbishöhe and Luciberg lies the Orbishöhe nature reserve of Auerbach and Zwingenberg ( CDDA no. 164948; designated 1989; 0.658  km² in size).

Traffic and walking

The summit of the Melibokus can be reached via a continuously paved road that branches off in Auerbach from the B 3 in the direction of Auerbacher Schloss. From the parking lot between Melibokus and Auerberg, the road is closed to motor vehicles, the last stretch to the summit must be covered on your own. Exceptions apply to hang-gliders , the manager of the restaurant in the foundation of the observation tower and the covered wagons of the Zwingenberg Historical Society. Trips from Löwenplatz in Zwingenberg to Melibokus can be booked on weekends.

The route from the B 3 to the summit is a challenge for many cyclists (8.2% mean gradient over 4.8 km in length).

Chapel In Need of God (2008)

The following driveways and parking spaces for hikers are ideal starting points for hikes to the summit or bike tours :

  • from Alsbach, the Sperbergrund and Herzog-Ulrich-Ruhe car parks east of the village on the slope and the car park at Alsbacher Schloss.
  • from Balkhausen or Hochstädten from the Schollrain car park , which is east of the mountain at the apex of the L 3101 state road .
  • From Zwingenberg, the Not Gottes parking lot on the saddle between Melibokus and Auerberg, which can be reached via the access road to Auerbach Castle.

Several main hiking trails run by the Odenwald Club and a cycle path for mountain bikers lead over the top of the Melibokus :

On the western flank of the mountain, the 85 km long HW3 flower path runs from Darmstadt-Eberstadt to Wiesloch and a little above along the Commoder path the 120 km long HW74 Burgensteig Bergstraße from Darmstadt to Heidelberg.

Web links

Commons : Melibokus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hessian Land Surveying Office: Topographische Freizeitkarte Nördlicher Odenwald West , M  = 1: 50,000, 2009 - (distance measurement to Knörschhügel approx. 120 m shorter than to Kesselberg)
  2. ↑ According to Highrisepages.de (no longer accessible) - the value given there for the dominance of 9.6 kilometers probably refers to the more distant Neunkircher Höhe
  3. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  4. ↑ Andreas Stieglitz: Hiking in the Odenwald and on the Bergstrasse, 2007
  5. ↑ Otto Klausing: Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 151 Darmstadt. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1967. →  Online map (PDF; 4.3 MB)
  6. ↑ Natural area Melibocus massif in the Environmental Atlas Hesse
  7. ↑ Melibokus (approx. 10 km to the highest point) ( Memento from October 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: www.bensheim.de
  8. ↑ 6217-305 Kniebrecht, Melibocus and Orbishöhe near Seeheim-Jugenh., Alsb.u.Zwing. (FFH area). Published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation . Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  9. ^ Covered wagon history association Zwingenberg ( Memento from October 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ Hessian Land Surveying Office: Topographische Freizeitkarte Nördlicher Odenwald West , M  = 1: 50,000, 2009
  11. ↑ The hiking trails of the Odenwald Club ( memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) on the Odenwald Club website
  12. ↑ Circular route Nördliche Bergstrasse on the website of the Geo-Naturpark Bergstrasse-Odenwald