Externsteine

One of our last weeks in Hildesheim, we decided to head up to see a distinctive rock formation called the Externstein.   We had seen a picture of the unique formation on a map in the city offices of Hildesheim when we registered as legal residents.  We were curious what they were and so Tom did some research and found that they were located only about an hour away.  The formation is a tor consisting of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills. 

According to Wikipedia, "The Externsteine are a natural outcropping of five sandstone pillars, the tallest of which is 123 ft high and form a wall of several hundred metres in length, in a region that is otherwise largely devoid of rocks. The pillars have been modified and decorated by humans over the centuries."  We read in the visitor center it was located on a trade route and it once served  as a religious site for pagans.  There is a room carved on the top stone they used for sacrifices.  Then later it was used as a priory for monks.  There is a religious carving on the outside the stone. There Later it was the home of a hermit. In the 1930s the Nazi's used it for rallies and propaganda.  Now it is a state park and hundreds of visitors climb to the top of the stones.  It had a beautiful view.

 

At the top of the tallest stone is a chamber, now open. There is some kind of altarstone, which may have been once used for sacrifices, later it may have been Christianized. Directly above the altarstone a circular hole is cut into the wall, facing the direction of sunrise at the time of summersolstice.^[

 

This is the stone carving on the outside of the Externsteine it is of the "Descent from the Cross. The bent tree below the cross has been suggested to represent the Irminsul, humiliated by the triumph of Christianity"  There is also two rooms carved into the stone where the monks lived.