Watchtower SP 3/5* and Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Watchtower SP 3/5*

   Taunusstein did not exist as a town until 1971, when ten villages on the high plateau north of Wiesbaden were merged into one municipality, and so it has no old centre, just a cluster of former villages, each with its church, its half-timbered houses and its fields. One of them, Wehen, gave its name to the football club SV Wehen Wiesbaden, which started here before moving to the city. The Roman frontier ran along the edge of this plateau, and watchtower SP 3/5, close to the line, is one of the many small sites that mark it in the forest between Taunusstein and Idstein.

   Read the complete Watchtower SP 3/5* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtower SP 3/5* is where the day begins. Next is Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen.

2. 2. Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen

   Up on the high, rolling plateau between the Rhine and the Lahn, where the Taunus fades into fields and beech woods, the Romans built one of the better preserved stone forts on the Upper German Limes. Holzhausen an der Haide is a quiet village of a little over a thousand people, and the fort sits just outside it in the trees, the outline of its walls still traceable on the ground, with the gates and corner towers marked out where the stone survives. It is part of the UNESCO-listed frontier that once ran from the Rhine near Koblenz all the way to the Danube, a line of palisade, ditch, watchtowers and garrisons meant less to stop armies than to control who came and went, and what they paid for the privilege.

   Read the complete Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen comes up 25 km in. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6.

3. 3. Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6

   WP 2/5 and 2/6 sound like spare parts, but they are the numbers archaeologists gave to two watchtower positions on the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the fortified frontier Rome drew across southern Germany. Here, in the hills above the Lahn near Bad Ems, the line ran up from the Rhine and over the high ground, and every few hundred metres a tower stood with a view to the next. Today most of what survives are low mounds, traces of the bank and ditch, and in some places a reconstructed tower to give you scale. The whole frontier became part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire in 2005.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   49 km in you reach Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6. Next is Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the.

4. 4. Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the

   West of the Taunus ridge, where the high country rolls down toward the Rhine gorge and the Lahn, the line of the Upper German Limes runs through farmland and forest near the villages of Holzhausen an der Haide, Katzenelnbogen and Nastätten. Archaeologists have catalogued the sites of the watchtowers along this stretch, numbered WP 2/35 to 2/48, and near Holzhausen are the remains of a stone fort, well preserved and easily visited, with its walls and gate outlines clear in the grass. The Limes here consisted of a palisade of wooden stakes, later backed by a ditch and bank, with watchtowers at regular intervals and forts a few kilometres behind. It formed the frontier of the Roman Empire for more than a century and a half.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 2/35 to 2/48 including the, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6.

5. 5. back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Watchtowers WP 2/5 to 2/6 sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen.

6. 6. back through Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Fortsite of Holzhausen and civil settlemen comes up 123 km in. Next is Watchtower SP 3/5*.

7. 7. Watchtower SP 3/5*

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtower SP 3/5* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Watchtower SP 3/5* closes the day.