On the Ritten plateau in the northern part of Italy, there is a breathtaking natural wonder: narrow, towering spires made of soft clay, crowned with solid stone boulders. It gives the impression that some giant jester adorned each slender tower with its “hat.” However, some hats have fallen off their spires. The slender rows of such pyramids resemble a dense and tall forest. It looks incredible and immediately raises the question of how this is even possible. How did such strange “structures” form in nature?
How they are formed
The famous earth pyramids (they are also called “hoodoos” and “magic chimneys” in the world) are one of the most famous natural attractions in Ritten (Renon). The natural material for them is moraine clay, deposited at the end of the glacial period from the main glacier of the Eisack Valley as well as from local tributary glaciers. For such earth pyramids to form at all, certain natural conditions are necessary. These include relatively loose soil with large boulders interspersed, rainfall, and a lot of time. In its dry state, moraine clay is as hard as stone, but when wet, it forms a slushy mass that begins to roll and flow downhill. Over time, the moisture-soaked soil slips into the stream below and is washed away by water. This constant and continuous slipping temporarily stops only when erosion encounters a forest, where the underlying soil becomes so dry that it hardens like a rock, preventing further rapid slipping. It is this process that forms these steep rocks up to 10–15 meters high, from which earth pyramids are later formed.
Where the moraine contains larger stones that keep the soil underneath dry and solid, the earth pyramids are formed as a result of literal washing out, or more precisely, erosion of these rocks. Over millennia, rains have washed away the loose soil, gradually removing its layer. As a result, only boulders remain, sticking out from the ground here and there like huge umbrellas.
They protect the soil base from rain, and although the soil around them disappears, the strange earth columns remain. The higher the rock and the higher the suitable stone placed on top, the higher and more powerful the pyramid becomes. Due to erosion, these columns continue to grow, and for the same reason, they are destined to disappear when the covering stone, like a hat, falls off.
Since the beauty of the natural columns in Ritten has long been known, a so-called earth pyramid trail has been specially laid out for tourists; the route is designed in such a way that travelers can see the wonder columns up close.
Even elderly or less mobile people can reach them because the pyramids in Oberbozen, for example, are not far from the mountain station of the Ritten cable car, and you can reach Langmoos by the narrow-gauge Ritten railway, which goes almost to the pyramids.
The most famous pyramids on the Ritten plateau are located in Katzenbachtal near Oberbozen—in particular, in Finsterbachtal, between Langmoos and Mittelberg. In 2013, the road to the earth pyramids of this locality was renovated, making it even more convenient to admire the natural wonder.
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