Sky Discs Cycle Path

Short description

Following the historical traces of the Nebra Sky Disk, this tour runs from Nebra via Wangen to Halle / Saale. Along the way, there is the opportunity to visit the Arche Nebra Experience Center near the location where the disk was found.

Description

The Sky Disk Cycle Path connects the finding place of the Nebra Sky Disk near Wangen with its storage location, the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle. The approximately 73 km long cycle path is part of the tourist route Sky Paths and passes through the Burgenland district, the Mansfeld-Südharz district, and the Saale district as well as the city of Halle.

Route description

The route branches off in Wangen from the Unstrut Cycle Path and leads via the Arche Nebra Experience Center, an architectural replica of the Sky Barque, to the location of the Sky Disk on the Mittelberg, where a 30-meter high observation tower, which also represents a sundial, is intended to recreate the view of that time. Continuing through the Ziegelroda Forest, past the Hermannseck animal enclosure, the tour takes you to Querfurt, where there is an impressive castle to visit. From Querfurt, the route passes through the Mansfeld region with the wine region at the Süßer See and meets the Saale-Harz Cycle Path in Seeburg, eventually leading through the Saale district to Halle, where the Nebra Sky Disk can be viewed at the State Museum of Prehistory.

 

The course of the Sky Disk Path:

 

Nebra - Wangen - Arche Nebra Visitor Center - Mittelberg - Ziegelroda Forest - Hermannseck - Leimbach - Querfurt - Obhausen - Kuckenburg - Esperstedt - Schraplau - Röblingen am See - Aseleben - Seeburg - Saale-Harz Cycle Path - Halle (Saale)

Further information

Arche Nebra — Experience the Sky Disk,
At Steinklöbe 16, 06642 Wangen, Tel. 034461/2552-0, Fax: 034461/25365

Halle (Saale) City Marketing GmbH, Tourist Information, Marktplatz 13 (Marktschlösschen), 06108 Halle, Tel. 0345/1229984, Fax: 0345/1229985

Grünes Herz Publisher

Cycling map Halle (Saale)
ISBN: 978-3-86636-068-6
Price: 5.95 EUR
Open format: 63 cm x 90cm 
Folded format: 12.5 cm x 22.5 cm
2nd edition

 Nebra Sky Disk:

The almost circular plate has a diameter of about 32 centimeters and a thickness of 4.5 millimeters in the center and 1.7 millimeters at the edge. It weighs approximately 2 kilograms. The disk is made of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, with the copper content proven to come from Mitterberg near Mühlbach am Hochkönig in the Eastern Alps. The ratio of radiogenic lead isotopes contained in the copper allows for this location determination. In addition to a low tin content of 2.5 percent, it has a typically high arsenic content of 0.2 percent for the Bronze Age. It was apparently driven from a bronze ingot and repeatedly heated to prevent or eliminate stress cracks. This caused it to turn deep brown to black. The current green color, caused by a corrosion layer of malachite, only developed through long storage in the ground.

The applications made of unalloyed gold sheet are worked in inlay technique and have been supplemented and altered multiple times. Based on the finds (bronze swords, two axes, a chisel, and fragments of spiral arm rings), it is presumed that it was buried around 1600 BC, with its production date estimated between 2100 and 1700 BC.

Travel information

By train to Wangen

Parking information

400 m from the Infocenter Arche Nebra