Watchtowers WP 15/8 to 15/10 and Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Watchtowers WP 15/8 to 15/10

   The Raetian Limes, the eastern stretch of Rome's frontier in Germany, was built differently from its western counterpart. Instead of a wooden palisade, the Romans eventually raised a stone wall here, running for over a hundred and sixty kilometres across what is now Bavaria, towards the Danube. Locals later called it the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, convinced that only a demon could have built something so long. Watchtowers stood along it every few hundred metres, and the group between WP 15/8 and 15/10, in the hills between Greding and Dietfurt, is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire. In places, low remains of the wall and towers can be traced in the forest and fields.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/8 to 15/10 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 15/8 to 15/10 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo.

2. 2. Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo

   Between Greding and Eichstätt, the Raetian Limes runs across the high Franconian Jura plateau, and the names on the map, WP 14/63 to 14/78, are archaeologists' shorthand for a sequence of Roman watchtower sites along this section of the frontier. The Raetian Limes was the wall part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Here, the Romans built a stone wall rather than the timber palisade used further west. Locals later called the remains the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall, believing nothing human could have built it.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo comes up 20 km in. Next is Fort site of Burgsalach.

3. 3. Fort site of Burgsalach

   The small fortlet at Burgsalach stood on the Raetian Limes, the eastern section of Rome's frontier in Germany. Dating from a late phase of the frontier, it had walls of stone and was compact and well defended, more like a small castle than the usual timber watchtower, and its name lives on in the village of Burgsalach nearby. The outline of the walls can still be traced on the ground, and like the rest of the frontier it is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Here, in the hills of Middle Franconia, the Raetian Limes was not a palisade but a stone wall, which local legend later attributed to the Devil himself, calling it the Teufelsmauer.

   Read the complete Fort site of Burgsalach write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   40 km in you reach Fort site of Burgsalach. Next is fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh.

4. 4. fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh

   The Romans called it Iciniacum, and for a century and a half it was home to a cavalry unit guarding the Raetian frontier in what is now Middle Franconia. The fort at Theilenhofen, near Gunzenhausen in Bavaria, lay just behind the Limes, the frontier wall that here was built of stone, running across the landscape from the Danube toward the Main. Today there is little above ground, but information panels by the site and the line of the fort traced in the fields help visitors picture it. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005.

   Read the complete fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45.

5. 5. Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45

   South of Gunzenhausen the old frontier of the Roman Empire ran across the countryside in a ruler-straight line, and the numbered watchtowers are the markers for that line. This is the Raetian Limes, the stretch that, from the second century onward, was built from timber and then stone to protect the province of Raetia from the Germanic tribes to the north. The numbers 13/41 to 13/45 simply describe a cluster of tower sites on the surveyor's map. Most of them have been reduced by farming and time to low mounds and gentle banks in the fields, so what you actually find is landscape rather than masonry.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Watchtowers WP 13/41 to 13/45 sits at 81 km, about halfway. Next is back through fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh.

6. 6. back through fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through fort site and civil settlement of Theilenh comes up 101 km in. Next is back through Fort site of Burgsalach.

7. 7. back through Fort site of Burgsalach

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fort site of Burgsalach write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   121 km in you reach back through Fort site of Burgsalach. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo.

8. 8. back through Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 14/63 to 14/78 including fo 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 14/63 to 14/78 including fo, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 15/8 to 15/10.

9. 9. Watchtowers WP 15/8 to 15/10

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 15/8 to 15/10 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 169 km.