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FRThe tour into the depths
From the stairs to the deepest point at 30 metres: six stops on your dripstone cave tour.
Ancient limestone, shaped drop by drop.
Underground it is around 8 °C all year round. The dripstones grow only about one centimetre in a hundred years – so please do not touch them.
The cave was discovered around 1860 during blasting in the quarry and has been open to visitors since 1927. You can read about its formation and history on their own pages.
- Duration
- 45 min
- In the cave
- 8 °C
- Tours
- 10 am–4 pm
- Adults
- €6.50
The way down
From the forest floor to 30 metres deep
The tour is a cross-section through Earth’s history: forest and loam on top, then slate and sandstone, then the limestone of an ancient reef. Over a very long time, water dissolved passages and halls in it.
0 m · Ticket office at the forest edge
Meeting point in the beech wood
Tickets and meeting point at the kiosk. The tour starts on the hour.
7 m · after 26 steps
The stairs into the limestone
After 26 steps the forest floor is 7 metres above you. The air turns cool and damp.
30 m · deepest point
In the middle of the reef
At the very bottom you stand in Devonian limestone. It is around 8 °C here all year round – in high summer and in winter.
Diagram: the depths 0, 7 and 30 m come from the tour; layer thicknesses and the course of the passages are simplified. Geology after the Geological Survey of NRW (geotope GK-5011-002).
The path of your tour.
0 m · Entrance
26 steps down
The tour begins at the stairs. After 26 steps you are already 7 metres underground – and the air turns noticeably cooler.
7 m · Passages
Narrow, low, cool
Narrow passages lead into the rock. The ceiling is low in places – duck your head and listen to your guide.
7 to 30 m · Dripstones
Drop by drop
Stalactites hang from the ceiling, stalagmites grow up from the floor. Where the two meet, columns form.
7 to 30 m · Formations
The elephant
With a little imagination you can make out an elephant in one dripstone formation – one of the best-known stops on the tour.
7 to 30 m · Highlight
The crystal grotto
A former cave lake lined with calcite crystals. This is the highlight of the tour.
30 m · Deepest point
30 metres underground
At the deepest point, couples have been exchanging civil wedding vows since 2002 – right in the rock. Getting married in the cave
A look inside the cave.
Click to open an image full size.
