Höllental (Black Forest)

The Höllental (English translation: Hell's Valley) in the Black Forest is a deep valley - in places like a gorge - in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. The valley, which is about 9 km long, is located in the southern part of the Southern Black Forest Nature Park about 18 km southeast of Freiburg im Breisgau between Hinterzarten and Buchenbach-Himmelreich. The Rotbach stream (also called Höllenbach in the upper Höllental) runs through the valley. "Hölle" is the German word for "hell". In the narrow, dark valley, travellers almost felt like moving underground.

The Höllental is one of the valleys in the Black Forest that cuts through the asymmetric ridgeline of mountains from its plateau-like eastern uplands and runs down its steep western escarpment. The valley follows the line of the Bonndorf Rift Valley (Bonndorfer Graben), which runs from Kaiserstuhl via the Wutach gorge and Hegau to Lake Constance and is part of this tectonically formed fault. Additionally, it could have been created as a result of repeated glaciation of the Black Forest's uplands by ice lakes that could have spilled westwards over the eroded ridgeline. As a result, the tributaries of the Höllenbach east of the ridgeline flow initially southeast, turning almost 180° towards the northeast into the Höllental itself, a situation similar to that of the Maloja Pass in Engadin.

Below the high-lying hollows of Hinterzarten, the federal highway B 31 winds downhill, partly in spectacular loops, at the head of the former glacial valley. In this enclosed bowl with the hamlet of Höllsteig ("Hell Path"), the so-called Löffeltal ("Valley of Spoons"), where beginning in the 18th century metal spoons were forged, joins the Zartenbach stream south of the road. To the north, the Ravenna gorge, with its numerous waterfalls, opens up under the Ravenna viaduct of the Höllental Railway. From the south the Bistenbach and Alpersbach streams tumble into it, becoming waterfalls. After the station of Hirschsprung and following the U-shaped valley with steep slopes up to 600 m high (and its four-lane road) is a section with towering cliffs up to 130 m and known as the Höllenpass ("Hell Narrows"). The narrowest part of the gorge is called the Hirschsprung ("Deer's Jump") and was originally only 9 m wide. Thus, a common tale is existing about a red deer's jump across it. Behind the rocks with the ruins of Falkenstein Castle, the valley broadens out somewhat and provides more space for the houses and farms of Falkensteig. At Himmelreich ("Heaven") hamlet and its railway station, the valley abruptly opens up into the Basin of Zarten.

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