Luisenburg Rock Labyrinth information

The Luisenburg Rock Labyrinth (German: Luisenburg-Felsenlabyrinth) is a felsenmeer made of granite blocks several metres across and is part of the Großes Labyrinth Nature Reserve near Wunsiedel in Germany. For a long time its formation was believed to have been caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes. Today it is known that processes such as weathering and erosion over a long period are much more likely to have been responsible for the formation of the rock labyrinth.

Goethe wrote in 1820

The enormous size of the granite blocks, piled on one another without rhyme or reason gives an impression the like of which I have never come across on all my walks and no-one can be blamed for explaining this chaotic state of affairs that excites astonishment, fear and dread, by calling on the help of floods and cloudbursts, storms and earthquakes, volcanoes and whatever else nature may violently conjure up. However on closer inspection, and with a detailed knowledge of that which nature, acting quietly and patiently, is able to do in a most extraordinary way, another solution to this puzzle offers itself to us (...)

The well-rounded shapes of the individual blocks were formed by spheroidal weathering (Wollsackverwitterung) in the tropical, humid climate of the Cenozoic era. Over the course of time they were left behind as the ground around was eroded; they became unstable and began to shift. This resulted in the jumble of rocks with wild, romantic paths through the narrow clefts and steep steps.