Floßgraben bei Schlema, Log driving canal in Erzgebirgskreis, Germany.
The Floßgraben bei Schlema is a water channel system that stretches about 15 kilometers through forests and meadows with stone-reinforced banks. The landscape shows water control structures and is today accompanied by walking paths that follow the entire route.
Construction of this canal system began in 1556 under surveyor Christoph Kunzmann to transport timber to the mines and furnaces of the region. The project relied on careful calculations and later received UNESCO World Heritage recognition for representing precise medieval engineering.
Today the canal serves walkers and cyclists who explore the landscape and experience the historical engineering embedded in nature. The paths along the waterway are how locals and visitors engage with the mining heritage of the region.
A marked walking path runs along the entire canal from Rechenhaus in Albernau to the spa park in Bad Schlema and is easy to access for visitors. The path is partly flat and partly hilly, with several entry points so you can choose a shorter or longer walk.
The water system crosses over railway tunnels and handles an elevation drop of roughly 70 meters using calculations from the 16th century made without modern surveying equipment. The precision of this early mathematical planning is still remarkable to visitors today who understand how the system actually works.
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