Grauer Kopf, Mountain summit in Holzhausen, Germany.
The Grauer Kopf is a wooded hill in the Western Hintertaunus, reaching 543.4 m and ranking second in that part of the range after the Mappershainer Kopf (548 m). Its summit lies in Hesse about 3.3 km west of Laufenselden, just under 150 m southeast of the state border with Rhineland-Palatinate, which curves around the peak. The Ober-Germanic-Raetian Limes bends north here to enclose the summit, and the Holzhausen fort sits on the northern slope.
The hill lies on the Kemeler Heide ridge, and its north slope holds the Kastell Holzhausen, a fort of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes; the frontier makes a slight northward arc here to enclose the summit. Since the late Middle Ages the Hessenstrasse forest path crossed the northwest slope, linking Hessian lands on the Middle Rhine with the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel. In February 2014 construction began on twelve wind turbines of type GE2.5-120 on the Kemeler Rücken between Grauer Kopf and Gesteinteheck.
The Hessenstraße, a forest track crossing the northwestern slope, linked Hessian territories on the Middle Rhine with the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel from the late Middle Ages. The summit area lies just under 150 m southeast of the state border, which here curves around the peak; the border's highest point in the Rhineland-Palatinate Taunus, about 527 m, sits on the northwest slope south of the Holzhausen fort.
The mountain is accessible via several marked hiking trails starting from Holzhausen with various entry points. Sturdy footwear is recommended since the terrain includes rocky and uneven ground.
The border between Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate loops around the summit region, and its highest point in the Taunus outside the Hoher Westerwald lies on the northwestern slope at about 527 m, just south of the Holzhausen fort. The Limes makes a slight northward bend here to enclose the summit. Two of the twelve wind turbines built from 2014 stand close to the Limes.
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