Kesselberg, Mountain summit in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Kesselberg is a 661.8 m high mountain in the Haardt range, on the boundary between Edenkoben and Rhodt unter Rietburg. It is the second highest peak of the Palatine Forest after the Kalmit. Its summit plateau carries Bunter sandstone rocks with round depressions, protected as the Felsengruppe Kugelfelsen nature monument. The summit is fully wooded, so there are no views.

The summit's round sandstone hollows were long explained as Celtic sacrifice bowls or glacial potholes, though no glacial striations exist anywhere in the Palatinate. Modern interpretation attributes them to weathering of spherical sandstone bodies in the Karlstal beds. In 1953 a summit footpath was blazed and named after historian Friedrich Sprater, who researched the mountain.

The round hollows on the summit plateau are called Gletschermulden on hiking maps, though no ice-age evidence such as glacial striations exists anywhere in the Palatinate. Older interpretations read them as Celtic sacrifice bowls or glacial potholes; today they are explained as weathering of spherical sandstone bodies in the Karlstal beds. A new signpost at the summit explains the debate in an amusing yet scientific way.

The summit is reached from the trail forks at Benderplatz (565.5 m) and Kohlplatz (465.9 m), both marked with signposts; Benderplatz is accessible from the Lolosruhe hiker car park and Forsthaus Heldenstein, Kohlplatz from the Modenbach valley and the Edenkobener valley near the Edenkobener Hut. From the main trail linking the two passes, a small footpath branches off to the top. The summit is fully wooded, so there are no views over the Palatine Forest.

The round hollows on the summit plateau, mapped as Gletschermulden, are protected as the Felsengruppe Kugelfelsen natural monument (ND-7337-181). They formed by weathering of spherical sandstone bodies in the Kugelfels horizon of the Karlstal beds; older guesses of Celtic sacrifice bowls or glacial potholes lack evidence, as no glacial striations exist anywhere in the Palatinate.