Scharhörn

Scharhörn is an uninhabited island in the North Sea belonging to the city of Hamburg, Germany. The once most important daymark on the north sea coast, the Scharhörnbake, was maintained here by the City of Hamburg from 1440 to 1979.GeographyScharhörn lies by the mouth of the Elbe, approximately northwest of Cuxhaven and northwest of the nearby island of Neuwerk. It is a part of Zone 1 of the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park. Aside from a nature reserve warden, the island has no permanent residents.Together with the artificial island of Nigehörn the island lies on a large sandbank. Historically the whole area including the reef was called Scharhörn and the sandbank Scharhörnplate. After the human supported formation of the island in the 1920s and finally with the creation of Nigehörn on the same sandbank, the name Scharhörn was only used for the island. Though Scharhörn is generally flood-safe, the 6m banks of the island are not protected, so the island faces permanent loss of land on the western side as storm floods gradually shift the sandbank eastward.The sandbank on which Scharhörn and Nigehörn lie is a European Union Natura 2000-designated bird sanctuary, tended to by the environmental group Verein Jordsand. The area, known as Scharhörnplate, is around long and wide with an area of approximately. Public access to the island is forbidden, except on official tours or by prior arrangement with the warden.