Schnarcherklippen

The Harz mountains are as versatile as they are popular and attract countless visitors from all over the world every year. In addition to the many mountains and ranges of hills and the picturesque landscape, it is above all the many outstanding viewpoints and sights that make the Harz region so appealing. These definitely include the Schnarcherklippen of Schierke. This unusual name alone has a very special appeal, because you surely want to know immediately why these cliffs have such an unusual name and what is hidden behind it. We don't want to keep you in suspense any longer and will solve the mystery.

The snorer cliffs in Schierke - snoring included!

Situated in the Hochharz in the middle of the beautiful Harz Nature Park / Saxony-Anhalt between the small towns of Elend and Schierke, the Schnarcherklippen are on the flank of the Barenberg. There are exactly two rock towers that bear the melodious name Schnarcherklippen. They stand about 20 metres apart and have a special feature that causes a strange sound to occur when the wind blows. The snorer cliffs are granite rocks. It contains magnetite - also known as magnetic iron. This causes the compass needle to be deflected from the north direction, making it impossible to use the compass accurately. It is assumed that the magnetisation of the rock is due to lightning strikes. If the wind comes from the southeast and blows along the rocks, this combination of unusual occurrences creates this phenomenon of special sounds that sounds like real snoring. You simply have to hear it!

The snoring cliffs of Schierke - in the best of company

The two rock towers are 25 metres and 28 metres high respectively. Not far from the two Schnarcherklippen are the Mäuseklippe to the northwest and the Scherstorklippen to the southwest. All the cliffs have been formed by so-called woollen-sack weathering, which is the result of a special interplay of chemical and physical processes. These angular, rounded blocks of rock look like pillows or woollen sacks stacked on top of each other - hence the unusual name.

A natural monument of the highest order

The Schnarcherklippen are located in the north-western part of the Barenberg at an altitude of about 670 metres. When visiting the Schnarcherklippen, we recommend that you take the hiking trail from the beautiful village of Schierke, which stretches along the Teufelsstieg. Alternatively, the hiking trail from the village of Elend through the middle of the Elendstal nature reserve works very well. You can climb the rocks via various iron ladders and then have a magnificent view over the surrounding mountains and hills such as the Barenberg, the Wurmberg and even the Brocken. This is the Harz in all its glory!

Even Goethe loved the Schnarcherklippen

Fascinating plot: the famous poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was also fascinated by this special natural spectacle and even mentioned the Schnarcherklippen in several paragraphs of his most famous work "Faust" - after all, Goethe was not only a poet and writer, but also a passionate naturalist. The passage in Goethe's Faust is as memorable as it is resonant "... and the cliffs that stoop, and the long rock noses, how they snore, how they blow!"