Erdmannshöhle, Show cave in Hasel, Germany.
The Erdmannshöhle is a show cave in Hasel, a small town in the southern Black Forest in Germany. The cave consists of several passages and chambers, featuring stalactites, stalagmites, underground pools, and narrow sections carved into the rock.
The cave's first written mention is a land survey from the mid-1750s, which records it as "Erdmännleins Grub". In May 1851 the poet Joseph Victor von Scheffel visited the cave and described the trip in a letter to his sister; he later worked the cave into his verse epic Der Trompeter von Säkkingen as the tenth piece, Jung Werner in der Erdmannshöhle.
The cave's name comes from the Erdmännlein, the "little men of the earth" of local legend, said to be hardworking and helpful. The figure may trace back to small, hooded Venetian prospectors who searched the Black Forest for glassmaking minerals and kept to themselves. Joseph Victor von Scheffel set the tenth chapter of Der Trompeter von Säkkingen, "Jung Werner in der Erdmannshöhle", inside the cave, after visiting it in May 1851.
The cave is visited on guided tours that run at regular intervals throughout the day. The temperature inside stays cool all year round, so bringing a jacket is a good idea regardless of the season.
The cave's largest stalactite, over 4 metres tall and 2 metres thick at its base, is listed in the Guinness Book of Records; its age is estimated at around 135,000 years, though it was once thought to exceed a million years.
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