Tamina Gorge
The Tamina Gorge is the northern part of the Tamina Valley in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland .
Between Valens and the hamlet of Bonadivis, the water of the Tamina digs up to 200 m into the ground. Over the past 15,000 years, the small river has carved its way into the rock, sometimes even completely covered by a natural bridge between Valens and Ragol. The narrow crevice is around 750 m long and 70 m deep. At Bad Pfäfers the gorge widens so far that there is also a single-lane road next to the Tamina for the last 4 km, which connects Bad Ragaz with the old Bad Pfäfers. Before the Gigerwaldsee was built, the river bed deepened by half a centimeter to two centimeters per year.
Emergence
There are two ways in which the Tamina has deepened its gorge out of the rock over the past 15,000 years:
- First the river ate its way in a narrow channel through the seven meter thick Nummulite limestone , which forms the natural bridges . When the water below plunged into the softer lake schist, this promoted deeper valley formation. As the Tamina cut itself obliquely in an eastward movement, the west wall is said to have inclined slightly and thus wedged the Nummulite limestone banks against each other, creating the natural bridges.
- But it is also conceivable that the Tamina ate its way under the harder limestone and that the gorge is actually a cave. However, the most important outcrops at the natural bridges are neither accessible nor visible.
The Swiss geologist Albert Heim was convinced: “No other gorge in the Swiss Alps surpasses it in magnificence”.
Access
From Bad Ragaz, the gorge has been accessible to pedestrians via the small road since 1838. From Bad Pfäfers, a path has been carved into the eastern flank that can be walked to the source during the summer during the day. In the past, access from Pfäfers and Valens was via steep mountain paths and stairs. Sometimes the sick were roped down into the gorge.
Thermal spring
In the rear part of the Tamina Gorge there is a thermal spring , whose 36.6 ° warm water is drawn. From 1350 to 1969 it was used in Bad Pfäfers, since then on the one hand in the Valens medical clinic and on the other in the thermal baths of Bad Ragaz. The water is used to treat circulatory diseases, rheumatism , paralysis and the consequences of accidents.
literature
- Hans Wälti: In the Tamina valley . in: Switzerland in Life Pictures, Volume VII St. Gallen, Appenzell A.-Rh., Appenzell I.-Rh. : A reader on local history for Swiss schools, edited by Hans Wälti. Sauerlander, Aarau 1939.
- Altes Bad Pfäfers: It's wonderful to be here . Pfäfers, undated
- Exhibition in the old Bad Pfäfers
- David Imper: The Sarganserland – Walensee – Glarnerland Geopark , p. 128 ff.
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Albert Heim: Geology of Switzerland. Volume 2. 1921, p. 474.