was laid out. This was initially only operated in the afternoons and formed a cascade which resembled the Staubbach Fall in Switzerland's Lauterbrunnen valley in the Bernese Oberland, which attracted thousands of visitors. Geology The rocks of the Romerkhall Waterfall consist mainly of limestones. In the Upper Devonian, about 370 million years ago, the area was covered by a sea. It was divided into basins and ridges. Limes were deposited on the ridges, which were closer to the surface of the water (carbonatic threshold facies of the Upper Harz Upper Devonian). About 300 million years ago, the rocks were folded, sunk, metamorphosed by intruding granites, later uplifted again, and then exposed by erosion. That is how this old limestone comes to form the rocks over which the waterfall drops as well as the Rabenklippe crags to the west. In the intervening Oker valley is argillaceous Kulm slate. There is a path up to the top of the waterfall on the hillside north of the rocks. At its foot, a few metres of dark slate-hornfels rocks of the Lower Carboniferous have been exposed. The waterfall rocks at the lookout platform consists of upper Devonian limestones, which are tectonically heavily deformed. About 290 million years ago, the molten Oker granite nearby hardened and overprinted all the nearby rocks in a process known as contact metamorphism. Tourism Romkerhall is both a departure point for several hiking trails as well as a waypoint on others. Downstream a path runs along the Oker, which is surrounded by high rocks that are used, mainly at weekends, by rock climbers. There are also many large boulders in the river which, in places, have formed small islands, including Betrothal Island (Verlobungsinsel), which is checkpoint no. 116 in the Harzer Wandernadel hiking system. From Romkerhall several steep paths lead up to the crags of the Treppenstein, the Ahrendsberger Klippen to the south, the Mausefalle on the Huthberg hill to the north and from there to the Kästeklippen. From the Ahrendsberger Klippen there is a clear view of Romkerhall and the waterfall. The Hallesche Hütte hut near the crags is the location of checkpoint no. 119 in the Harzer Wandernadel. References Literature Hans Joachim Franzke & Irene Joss: Granitfelsen und Romkerhaller Wasserfall im Okertal, Clausthal University of Technology, at dgg.de (pdf; 362.4 KB) Hans-Joachim Franzke & Rainer Müller: Exkursion in einem geologischen Profil durch den West- und Mittelharz. In: Heinz-Gerd