Top 20 Caves in Lower Bavaria

Great cave below the summit

Impressive place, this old mining pit

If you walk the path through the animal enclosure counterclockwise, you will first pass the Stone Age cave. In addition to the replica of a Stone Age cave, a film about the Stone Age in the Bavarian Forest will also be shown.

It's not far from Prunn Castle to get to the grotto. There is climbing in the grotto. If you walk a little further you will come to a very nice viewpoint. But take good care of the children.

Smaller caves can often be found in the rock.

The settlement history of the Altmühl valley began at the beginning of the last ice age, in the so-called Würm ice age, about 80,000 years ago. On the other hand, there are no archaeological finds from the oldest phase of the Paleolithic, i. H. from the Günz, Mindel or early Rißeiszeit 500,000 - 120,000 years ago, but this is more likely due to the change in river systems. The Danube flowed through the Lower Altmühltal until about 200,000 years ago. Therefore, no older finds could be deposited in caves or rock overhangs. In the Würm Ice Age, around 100,000 - 10,000 years ago, there are first indications of people who stayed in the caves or under rock protection roofs, so-called rock shelters, in the Lower Altmühl Valley. At that time the climate here is similar to that of the tundra today. The ice-free Altmühltal was a favorable hunting ground, where mammoths, rhinos, reindeer, and later also horses, bison and primal lived. The Klausen Caves are a system of several caves nested one on top of the other: Lower Klause, Klausen Niche, Middle and Upper Klause. Except for the Lower Hermitage, tools and equipment from the Old, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods were found in the other caves. From the Klausen niche comes z. B. a deciduous incisor of a Neanderthal. In the middle hermitage, archaeologists from the Magdalenian layer were able to salvage a single-row harpoon, bone spikes and a perforated staff made of reindeer antlers, which is decorated with fantasy creatures. A limestone slab with incised lines of a wild horse document the first art products. In 1913, archaeologists found the skeleton of a Homo sapiens. The approximately 30-year-old man died about 18,000 years ago. His dead body was wrapped in a mighty red chalk pack. Fragments of mammoth tusks lay in the area of the skull. https://www.herzstueck.bayern/ attraction/07-station-klausenhoehlen-e617ad20c7

A marked themed circular hiking trail leads from the historic visitor mine to the Gottesgab. The pit offers an insight into the oldest mining period on the Silberberg from the 8th to the 14th century. Ore roasting and ore cutting used to happen directly on the mountain. The red-colored path and the red spots on the themed path still bear witness to this today. The brown iron obtained was then processed into weapons and field tools in the iron hammers at Rothbach. If the visitor stands in front of the God's Gab, which has been wonderfully prepared for tourism, he will be overwhelmed by the play of colors he sees. Depending on the weather and the incidence of light, the rocks glow intensely in blue, yellow, white, brown and red colors. The bluish color comes from the lead and iron content, the red or brown color from iron, the yellow color from sulphur, the white from gypsum; formed during the weathering of magnetic gravel. The colors are efflorescences in the rock. Source: https://www.niederbayern-wiki.de/wiki/Gottesgab

Beautiful grotto, also for climbing