Teufelsmauer und Bode nordöstlich Thale, Protected natural area in Thale, Germany.
The Teufelsmauer und Bode nordöstlich Thale is a 198-hectare nature reserve northeast of Thale in the Harz foreland. It protects the middle section of the Teufelsmauer, a steeply tilted ridge of Upper Cretaceous sandstone, together with dry and semi-dry grasslands, part of the Mühlenberg and a stretch of the Bode with its banks. The rocks carry only scattered pioneer vegetation and lichens.
Quarrying at the Teufelsmauer goes back at least to the late 16th century and was banned by the mid-19th century. In 1935 the area was designated a nature reserve called Teufelsmauer; a new, roughly 198-hectare reserve with the number NSG 0064 replaced it on 22 December 2011.
The name Teufelsmauer (Devil's Wall) comes from the jagged row of sandstone crags that the reserve protects as the middle section of the formation. Visitors can follow a stretch of the Teufelsmauer-Stieg past display and information boards, and the area also serves local recreation, with a visitor-guidance system steering walkers along the paths.
Several marked trails cross the reserve, including a section of the Teufelsmauer-Steg and a circular route; display and information boards stand along the paths. A visitor-guidance system channels walkers to protect the dry grasslands and rock feet. The reserve borders farmland and, to the north, a quartz sand pit.
On the Mühlenberg within the reserve grows the only stand of yellow bedstraw (Edelgamander) in the northern Harz foreland. The reserve also holds scattered old sweet-cherry orchards planted in 1922 by the community of Weddersleben to feed itself after the First World War, replanted in 1954–56, 1984, 1985 and 1992.
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