Glessener Höhe, Summit at Bergheim, Germany

Glessener Höhe is a 205.8 m high reclaimed spoil heap (Kippe) of the Rhenish lignite mines, built between 1955 and 1970 in the Bergheim district of Glessen. Its mostly open plateau is farmed, while the slopes were replanted with mixed woodland. It is the highest point of the Ville ridge and of the Rhein-Erft district; before the heap was piled up, the ridge here reached only about 130 m.

This elevation was created between 1955 and 1970 from materials extracted during brown coal mining at the Fortuna open-pit mine. The summit thus represents a landscape transformed through industrial activity in the region.

At the eastern edge of the plateau, about 260 metres southeast of the summit, stands a wooden summit cross on a concrete base inscribed "Glessener Höhe" and "204 m". The cross bears the dates 1987, 1999 and 2021, marking its first erection and two renewals. Wooden benches beside it are reached by a short, steep stairway known as the Himmelsleiter.

The plateau is reached on foot, by bike or on horseback along waymarked paths; information boards on the summit show the routes. The Himmelsleiter, a short but steep wooden staircase on the south-east flank, leads up to the summit cross with its wooden benches. From there the view runs from the Düsseldorf television tower across the Cologne basin to the Bergisches Land and the Siebengebirge.

At the easternmost point of the plateau, about 260 metres southeast of the summit, stands a wooden summit cross on a concrete base inscribed "Glessener Höhe" and "204 m". First erected in 1987, it was rebuilt in 1999 and again in 2021, and its beam records these dates. Benches beside it are reached by a short, steep staircase known as the Himmelsleiter.