NPP Čertova zeď
Facts and practical information
Devil's wall - a rock wall built of basalt, located 4 km west of the city of Český dub, in the northern Czech Republic. It is a vertical basalt vein with the course of NNNE-SSW from around Ještědu to Bless. Its total length is about 20 km, while the thickness of 2-4 m. The vein is created from various basalt varieties. Nefelin basalts, Polzenity and others were awarded here. Approx. 1-2 km southeast is the parallel vein - Malá Čertova Zeď.
Basalt vein was founded in the Trzeciążol during alpine orogenesis. During tectonic movements, a giant plate made of upper sandstones burst, and basalt lava burst into the resulting gap. It is not known if the lava spilled to the surface of the earth or completely freezed within the sedimentary rocks. While cooling the thrombotic lava, a thermal blow was created in the form of basalt columns arranged horizontally, i.e. perpendicular to the cooling surface. During the later erosion, less resistant sandstones were strongly denied than more resistant volcanic rocks, which in this way formed the wall. According to old descriptions, its height reached 20 m.
For a man, this way of basalt was an incentive to operate. It is not known when its destruction began, while on a large scale it started in the second half of the 19th century. Not only large parts of the wall were demolished, but the basalt was extracted below the area of the area.
The most interesting parties include the hell of Tron and the devil's head. In the past, below the devil's head there was, demolished into a broken stone, a devil's gate on a path from the village of Smržov to the village of Zábdí.
Within the smaller vein there is Rasova Rokle - a gorge formed after the selected basalt with the beams of poles left to the bunch of pillars forming the anti -mandling of sandstone walls.
In 1948 a nature reserve was created covering the remains of the wall and the excavation after basalt. In 1964 it was enlarged to 20 ha.
Several legends circulate about the creation of the Devil's Wall, each with the devil in the lead role.
Liberecký