Iron sandstone

The 'Flemish Ardennes' belong to the hill range from 50 m to 150 m high that stretches from the Heuvelland (Kemmelberg, ...), over the Flemish Ardennes (Kluisberg, Muziekberg, ...) to the Pajottenland (Bosberg, ...) and the Hageland.

These hills are witness hills: accents in the relief that testify to a landscape that was once a lot higher. Their geological history begins during the Tertiary, about 70 to 3 million years ago. Flanders is then located in the sea and the Ardennes are a plain with rivers that flow into it. In the Diestiaan Sea (7 million years ago), sandbanks are deposited that are aligned parallel to the coast.

During the Alpine mountain formation, the Alps are raised to a high mountain range. The plain of the Ardennes is lifted into a high plateau and Flanders rises above the sea. Due to river erosion, Flanders is then sanded back into a plain. But the sandbanks of the Diestiaan Sea contain iron sandstone. These iron-rich peaks offer resistance to erosion, leaving the sandbanks as witness mounds in the landscape.

Wandelpunt