Top 20 Lakes around Harburg (Schwaben)

A beautiful lake for swimming, but beavers are also active on its shores.

Iduell small pond with circular path

A beautiful view of the pond... The roaring water behind the bench drowns out the twittering of the birds. To get there, you have to bridge a canal about a meter wide.

A Malm block measuring several thousand cubic meters within the colorful rubble masses in the area surrounding the Nördlinger Ries was used to extract raw materials and was partially mined. A small pond formed in the resulting hollow due to the low water permeability of the surrounding rubble rocks. The outcrop is located about 5.5 km southeast of the crater rim. The Gunzenheimer Gump is a small artificial pond (about 8 m deep), but it could only have been created due to the special geological conditions of its surroundings and human activities. The colorful rubble masses here consisted of large white Jurassic limestone blocks (Malm Delta) and clayey and sandy components from the Triassic and older Jurassic periods (Lias, Dogger). While the clayey-sandy deposits were removed, the more weather-resistant lime remained. The lime was used to build the Kaisheim monastery church. Due to the damming nature of the clays of the colorful rubble masses, water could rise under excess pressure (artesian rising spring) during lime mining and form a pond. The special geological significance of the Gunzenheimer Gump was taken into account in 2004. The Gunzenheimer Gump was included in the official geotope cadastre of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment and was thus awarded the "Geotop" seal of quality. [ Source: https://www.geopark-ries.de/geologische-besonderheit/gunzenheimer_gump-21524/ ]

Unfortunately I was only here at the beginning of October, the landscape around the lake is fantastic.

Coming from Doosweiher, I was missing an arrow today and got lost at the intersection. The path goes across the street and continues there. The arrows were not clear or there were arrows that were not visible due to overgrowth. 🤣

Hüle, Hülbe or Hüllweiher is a mostly artificially created small body of water on the water-poor plateaus of the Swabian Alb and the Franconian Jura. The still waters are located within built-up areas, in fields and in the forest. The cases were fed by rainwater and lay on natural waterlogged areas. The waters were of great importance as watering places for livestock or for producing industrial water. The Hülen lost their importance with the connection of the Alb settlements to the water supply and today represent unique cultural and historical evidence of the Swabian Alb and the Franconian Jura.

"It is probably rare to find a lake with deep, clear water on a slope surrounded by poor and dry grassland. There are many legends and legends surrounding the Gunzenheimer Gump. How does the water get to a high point within a very dry area? The Both opposites can only be explained with the events of the giant catastrophe. These are ejecta from the giant, where Jura rock had fallen onto a large clay block and sunk deeply. Because the dry heath in the area previously had no protection and little economic value, the Jura rock was quarried, just like in many other places on the edge of the Ries. Apparently soon after mining began, water began to collect in the surrounding clay layer, making further mining impossible. What remained was the mysterious Gunzenheimer Gump, a deep, clear lake. The water comes from groundwater sources and is always full to the brim, even in extremely dry times. Occasionally the excess water runs over the heaths to the west, which leads to a completely different spectrum of plants with lawns, gap sedges and blue rushes as key species. The underwater vegetation consists primarily of pondweed, while in the peripheral areas pond ledges, sedges and occasionally even flesh-colored orchid can be found." Source: Kaisheim - market and monastery (ed. Werner Schiedermair) https://www.kaisheim.de/de/marktgemeinde-kaisheim/ortsteile/gunzenheim/gunzenheimer-gump