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Our geo region
Today the Eifel counts as one of the most attractive German holiday and nature experience regions, because of its unspoiled wildlife and plant life and the richness in species.
The Eifel owes its popularity as a holiday destination for nature lovers, families and visitor groups largely to the geological processes, which have given this tourist area its distinctive appearance, characterised by gentle hills. In the course of our exclusive programme of nature experiences, we look forward to taking you to the sites of the Volcanic Eifel, the High Fens and the Eifel National Park region where exciting revelations about the geological origins of our highland region will be made.
The Eifel's volcanic history
The Eifel highlands are largely the remains of 400 million year old mountains, which belong geologically to the slate mountains on left bank of the Rhine.
During a phase lasting 10 million years, about 45 million years ago, volcanism began to form the landscape of the Vulkaneifel. The last hot phase of volcanic activity to date began one million years ago and finished ten thousand years ago. The geological remnants best known to holidaymakers today - the maars - come from this time and were formed by volcanic activity in the Vulkaneifel.
These natural phenomena are unique in Europe and show themselves to holidaymakers interested in geology as crater depressions in the landscape of the Vulkaneifel holiday and nature experience region. The maars were created by massive volcanic water vapour explosions, the power of which formed a volcanic crater such as the Meerfelder Maar, which is the largest maar in the Volcanic Eifel with a diameter of approx. 1,700 metres and crater depth of approx. 400 metres.
Our holiday programme includes nature guides who have studied geology and who will take you to areas of volcanic activity, which are not so easily recognised such as cinder cones, layered volcanoes, domes, calderas and lava flows, which, together with maars, belong to the geological heritage of the Vulkanpark Eifel.
The Eifel has even more to offer
The geological features of the nature experience and Eifel holiday region are not just limited to volcanic formations.
Similarly majestically to the Gerolsteiner Dolomites, the mottled sandstone rocks sit enthroned in the Eifel national park region not far from the small town of Nideggen, high above the Rur Valley. Here the Rur has cut deep into the old Devonian body of rocks and has shaped the mottled sandstone rocks, which indicates judging, by their red colouration, a climate similar to desert conditions at the time of their formation. Geological processes also give an explanation for the formation of the highland moor landscape of the High Fens.
Weathering of the slate rock on the plateau between Eupen, Raeren, Malmedy, Hockai and Jalhay has caused the surface of the 500 million year old Revin layer to form an almost water tight, limestone free ground. At various sites in the High Fens such as Botrange, Steling, Hoscheit, Kaiser Karls Bettstatt, Pannensterz, Langschoss and Richelsley, the „Vennwacken“, holidaymakers can admire distinctive quartz rocks, which have reached the surface from the deeper deposits of the Venn massif's Revin layers.
Our sustainable nature travel programme guides our holiday guest to view the beauty and the sensitivity of the geological heritage of our holiday and nature experience region in the Eifel. During your vacation we invite you to visit, in small exclusive groups, protected bio- and geotopes, accompanied by geologically versed nature guides. The measure of our sustainable holiday offers remains the consistency of attractive nature experiences and practical nature conservation, whether we undertake walking, bicycle and GPS tours together with our holiday guests or discover geological peculiarities when engaged in geocaching.
National Park geo region
Millions of years ago parts of the Rureifel were situated on the coast of a tropical desert. The mottled sandstone rocks between the little Eifel towns of Heimbach and Nideggen tell us about this chapter in the geological development of the Eifel National Park region.
Its origins in a tropical climate also resulted in the calcified coral reefs of the chalk depressions, which contain traces of shallow sea organisms covering the ground here 380 million years ago. Here, in the region of North-Rhine Westphalia, more than anywhere else, the history of the earth can be traced back furthest in the Eifel National Park region. Quartz rocks are the oldest part of the 500 million year rocks of the Rhine Slate Mountains, such as the natural monument Kaiser Karls Bettstadt near the little Eifel town of Monschau.
Vulkaneifel geo region
Considering how quiet and tranquil the landscape of the Vulkaneifel appears today, it has experienced turbulent times as far as its earth history is concerned. Its more than 350 volcanic eruption centres awaken the thirst for knowledge amongst volcanologists.
The Vulkaneifel holiday region is also a rewarding holiday spot for families and nature lovers with an interest in geology. A holiday in the Geopark Vulkaneifel promises exciting time travel into the earth's history. Volcanic activities have left their trace in the form of maars, cinder cones, strata volcanoes, domes, caldera and lava flows. The geological highlights also include rock formations such as the Gerolsteiner Dolomites as witness of a time when the waters of a tropical sea covered the volcanic Eifel.
High Fens geo region
Geological processes created the conditions, due to a high level of precipitation at the end of the last Ice Age, for formation of the High Fens as a unique highland moor landscape on the ridge of Eastern Belgium.
The main player is still the impermeable layer of earth that was created, hidden away, by weathering of the top, 500 million year old Revin layer. The "Vennwacken" resulted in its place in a number of areas of the High Fens and the quartzite rocks of the deeper Revin layers brought to the earth's surface gave those interested in geology a better idea of the High Fens' historical story of creation. The other special geological features of the High Fens holiday experience region are the Palsen as relicts of Ice Age frozen hills.
