Heidenmauer

The Heidenmauer near the Palatine county town of Bad Dürkheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is a circular rampart or ringwork, two and a half kilometres long, which was built by the Celts around 500 B. C. as a type of Murus Gallicus but was pulled down again not long afterwards. The wooden elements of the wall have disappeared over the course of time by rotting away, but the stones have survived.The Heidenmauer is a cultural monument according to the protected monument act of Rhineland-Palatinate.GeographyLocationThe site lies one kilometre northwest of Bad Durkheim, 170 metres above the town, and covers the 300-metre-high, domed summit of the hill and its southeastern hillside of the Kästenberg. The latter is a southern spur of the Teufelsstein, which is part of the Haardt, the eastern range of the Palatinate Forest facing thee Upper Rhine Plain. South of the hillfort the little river of Isenach, a left tributary of the Rhine, breaks through the mountain barrier and enters the plain.Surrounding areaTo the left and below the former entrance of the Heidenmauer is the old Roman quarry of Kriemhildenstuhl. On the summit of the Teufelstein, a few hundred metres away, is the monolith of the same name, which may have been the location of religious rites in Celtic times. High above the southern bank of the Isenach lie the ruins of two medieval sites: the Hardenburg and, further downstream, the Benedictine abbey of Limburg.