Geoparks
The Hünenweg runs through the following geoparks:
TERRA.vita UNESCO Global Geopark
Whether calmly admiring or actively enjoying: you can experience what the last 300 million years of earth's extremely turbulent history have left us in a very special way in the TERRA.vita Nature and Geopark, which covers an area of around 1,550 square kilometres.
TERRA.vita! The name of this nature and geopark can be translated as "earth's life story". And it wasn't always a smooth one in the truest sense of the word. Folding and erosion, flooding and glaciation, desert climate or permafrost – entire worlds were lost and new ones created. The fauna, fungi and flora were subject to the geological upheavals. Seabed – folded into steep ridges, tropical forests – pressed into anthracite, entire mountain ranges – pushed up by huge glaciers. These cycles of Earth's history are documented more comprehensively here than almost anywhere else.
De Hondsrug UNESCO Global Geopark
On the other side of the border, the Hünenweg on the Dutch side is referred to by another name: Hondsrugpad. The landscape of the Hondsrug is peppered with traces of both a distant and a not-so-distant past. The Hondsrugpad from Emmen to Groningen follows medieval wagon tracks, prehistoric moor paths and imposing megalithic graves lying on this geest ridge.
It runs through vast forests, heathland, sand drifts, fields and secluded villages. More than anything, however, the Hondsrug serves as a testament to how ice that pushed across the land here around 150,000 years ago crushed everything that stood in its path and how ice and melt water formed geest ridges and glacial valleys.
What is a nature park?
Nature parks are large landscapes which primarily consist of landscape areas or nature reserves. These are characterised by a wide variety of species and biotopes as well as diverse land use – a cultural landscape in which people and nature are closely linked. Natural parks are intended to show which particular features there are to discover among the flora and fauna as well as the region's cultural tradition.
