Reichenbach Falls
The Reichenbachfall (also Rychenbachfall ) is a 300 meter high cascade of seven waterfalls in the course of the Reichenbach in the area of the community of Schattenhalb south of Meiringen in the canton of Bern in Switzerland . He is best known for the dramatic ending of the short story The Last Problem by Arthur Conan Doyle .
The uppermost Reichenbachfall is the largest. Here in summer 3 to 5 m³ / s, after a strong thunderstorm up to 30 m³ of water fall down to a width of up to 40 meters and 120 meters down the Reichenbach Falls. Below the fall, the water for the Schattenhalb 1 power plant is collected in the summer , because the Schattenhalb 3 power plant is then only allowed to withdraw water to a limited extent from the Zwirgi reservoir. The water from the Zwirgi reservoir, which lies above the Reichenbach Falls, flows through a pressure pipe inside the mountain directly to the headquarters in the valley floor.
The Reichenbachfall cable car leads to the uppermost Reichenbach Falls . At the mountain station, a hiking trail begins uphill to above the fall with numerous viewpoints. From the Hotel Zwirgi station , the footpath leads to the cable car station with a view of the waterfall or to the point where Conan Doyle's fictional character Sherlock Holmes fought with his adversary; the path ends here in a cul-de-sac that is fenced for safety reasons. The exact location of the fictional fight is marked with a white star that can be seen from the cable station.
The Reichenbachfall in literature
The Reichenbachfall is the subject of local sagas. It found its way into the Swiss travel guides early on and is the setting for many literary and cinematic treatises. Jeremias Gotthelf wrote a song of praise to the Reichenbach Falls in his novel Jacobs, the journeyman, walks through Switzerland . The young German craftsman Jacob, who was too involved in radical and communist agitation, experienced the omnipotence of God in the snow mountains and in the violence of the Reichenbach Falls on his hike through the Bernese Oberland.
The Reichenbach Falls became internationally known through Conan Doyle's story The Last Problem from 1893, in which Sherlock Holmes fell down the waterfall on May 4, 1891 together with his archenemy Professor Moriarty after a bitter fight. It later turns out that only Moriarty died in the process. A memorial plaque commemorates this fictional event.
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Coordinates: 46 ° 42 ′ 49 " N , 8 ° 10 ′ 57" E ; CH1903: 656 877 / 173870