Tagebauaussichtspunkte

The open-cast mine viewing points provide rare insights into a landscape that is constantly changing. At the Skywalk near Jackerath, you literally float above the Garzweiler open-cast mine: A platform rises far above the edge of the quarry and offers a view of bucket wheel excavators, spreaders and the terraced structure of the mine. Here you can see the dimensions of the open-cast lignite mine and how deep the layers of earth are exposed. At the Düren-Merken and Schophoven viewing points, you can look down into the cave-like hole of the Inden open-cast mine. Here, too, there were once villages that were excavated and whose inhabitants were resettled. Information boards at all open-cast mine viewing points explain the history of lignite mining, recultivation, large-scale equipment and much more. In Schophoven, a narrative figure reports on the far-reaching changes to the landscape. Where once their home was and is now a deep hole, the open-cast mining holes will be flooded and ships will sail on the lakes after the end of lignite mining.