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The Rock wall stretches between the small towns of Ballenstedt and Blankenburg in the Harz, Saxony

According to a stories by the Grimm Brothers, the standing rocks became known as the Devil’s Wall, and the rocky gravel area the Devils’s Dance Floor. At one time God and the Devil were fighting for domination over the world.

A time limit was given to the Devil by which he should build a fence, dividing the Earth in two, so he could share it with God. He ran out of time unable to finish the wall, and ended up with none of the Earth, so knocked down part of his wall in fury.

More likely the holes in the Teufelsmauer were the result of erosion. While the wall’s layers vary in density, some portions have fallen when the Harz rose from shifting tectonic plates, and parts of the sandstone. The wall could have been knocked out by glaciers as they melted at the end of the Ice Age.

The rock formation’s rarity has been known for a long time, and sandstone was in high demand for buildings during the 19th century, so in 1833 the Teufelsmauer was placed under protection. Making it one of Germany’s oldest nature reserves.

In some places only a few rocks rise steeply, on others, for example in Neinstedt, the compact wall looks like it was created by supernatural powers. In fact, it arose as a result of the formation of the resin

Massive tectonic forces were at work, shifting layers of rock from the horizontal to the vertical