Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* and Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*

   The Taunus does not shout. It is a rounded, forested upland north of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, and the Roman frontier crossed it on its way from the Rhine to the Main. These numbered watchtowers near Idstein belong to the Upper Germanic frontier, which in this part of Hesse ran through woods and clearings along the high ground. Archaeologists have recorded the tower positions along the line, and the asterisks in the label are their way of marking sites that are uncertain or only partly known. In practice you find woodland, a trail and the faint trace of an old bank.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 3/42*.

2. 2. Watchtower WP 3/42*

   Glashütten takes its name from the glass huts that worked in these forests in the Middle Ages, when the endless beech and oak of the high Taunus supplied fuel for the furnaces and potash for the glass. Today it is a quiet village spread over a saddle below the Großer Feldberg, at around 880 metres the highest summit in the Taunus, and the Roman frontier passes right by it. Watchtower 3/42 stood on this stretch of the Limes, where the bank and ditch run through the forest along the ridge; near the Feldberg summit, the remains of a small Roman fort, the Feldbergkastell, show where a garrison guarded a pass through the mountains.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/42* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Watchtower WP 3/42* comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456.

3. 3. Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456

   The Saalburg is the Roman fort that Germany rebuilt. On the crest of the Taunus north of Bad Homburg, where the Limes crossed a pass, archaeologists excavated the remains of a fort in the nineteenth century, and between 1897 and 1907, with the enthusiastic support of Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was reconstructed with walls, gates, barracks and a headquarters building. Today it is a museum and archaeological park, and the civil settlement, or vicus, that grew up outside the fort lies east of the B 456 road. It is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage Site.

   Read the complete Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Civil settlement of Saalburg east of B 456. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/42*.

4. 4. back through Watchtower WP 3/42*

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/42* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Watchtower WP 3/42*, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*.

5. 5. Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*. That is the ride.