Watchtowers WP 4/59 to 4/71 including the and Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Watchtowers WP 4/59 to 4/71 including the

   The Wetterau is a broad, fertile basin north of Frankfurt, one of the best farming landscapes in Hesse, and the Romans fenced it with a frontier that ran in a wide arc through the grain fields. This group of watchtowers, with its numbers running from 4/59 to 4/71, lies near Hungen and Lich on the eastern side, where the plain begins to rise toward the Vogelsberg. Close by stands the Eichkopf fortlet, and a few kilometres to the north the ruins of the big fort at Arnsburg lie beside the remains of a Cistercian abbey, a double dose of history under tall trees.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/59 to 4/71 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 4/59 to 4/71 including the is where the day begins. Next is Fortlet Dicker Wald 1.

2. 2. Fortlet Dicker Wald 1

   The Dicker Wald, the thick forest, is a good name for a place where a Roman fortlet once stood among trees. The fortlet was a small post on the Wetterau Limes, the frontier line that curves around the plain north of Frankfurt, and it sat just inside woodland that still covers much of the hill. What you find today are low earthworks and the outline of a small enclosure, but the surrounding forest gives a good sense of the lonely, damp setting soldiers would have known. The Limes was a frontier of watchtowers, small forts and larger garrisons, all linked by a path and a palisade.

   Read the complete Fortlet Dicker Wald 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Fortlet Dicker Wald 1 comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fortlet Eichkopf.

3. 3. Fortlet Eichkopf

   Deep in the forest on the eastern slopes of the Taunus, near Ober-Mörlen, the Romans built a small fortlet known today as Eichkopf, after the wooded hill on which it stands. It was one of the many minor installations along the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the frontier that separated the Roman Empire from the free Germanic tribes, and it housed a small detachment of soldiers who patrolled the line and manned the nearby watchtowers. The outline of the fortlet is still visible as a low rampart and ditch among the trees, and nearby, the line of the frontier itself, with its bank and ditch, can be traced through the forest. It is part of the World Heritage site of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.

   Read the complete Fortlet Eichkopf write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 37 km into the recorded legs you reach Fortlet Eichkopf. Next is Building remains southwest of Saalburg.

4. 4. Building remains southwest of Saalburg

   If you want to know what a Roman fort on the German frontier really looked like, the Saalburg is the place, and these building remains lie in the forest just southwest of it, part of the civilian and military landscape that grew up around the fort. The Saalburg itself was rebuilt at the beginning of the twentieth century on the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was fascinated by Roman history and keen to present the German empire as the heir of Rome. The walls, gates, headquarters building and granaries were reconstructed on the original foundations, based on the archaeology of the time, and today the fort houses a museum full of finds from the frontier, along with workshops, a Roman garden and regular events with reenactors.

   Read the complete Building remains southwest of Saalburg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Building remains southwest of Saalburg, about halfway. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha.

5. 5. Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha

   Elvis Presley spent his military service in Friedberg, a few kilometres from here, from 1958 to 1960, and lived in a rented house in the spa town of Bad Nauheim, where fans still leave messages on the wall outside and a square in the town bears his name. But nearly two thousand years earlier, other soldiers served in this region. The Roman frontier of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, a World Heritage site, ran along the edge of the Taunus hills here, and at Langenhain, near Ober-Mörlen, the Romans built a fort with a civil settlement beside it, where traders, craftsmen and the families of soldiers lived. Today, the site is mostly fields and meadows, with information boards to help you imagine the walls, gates and buildings that once stood here.

   Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Langenha 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 Langenha sits at 68 km, about halfway. Next is back through Building remains southwest of Saalburg.

6. 6. back through Building remains southwest of Saalburg

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Building remains southwest of Saalburg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Building remains southwest of Saalburg comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fortlet Eichkopf.

7. 7. back through Fortlet Eichkopf

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortlet Eichkopf write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 117 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fortlet Eichkopf. Next is back through Fortlet Dicker Wald 1.

8. 8. back through Fortlet Dicker Wald 1

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortlet Dicker Wald 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Fortlet Dicker Wald 1, late in the day. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/59 to 4/71 including the.

9. 9. Watchtowers WP 4/59 to 4/71 including the

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/59 to 4/71 including the 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 154 km.