Jeannie's Travel Addiction

June 19, 2018

Seeing the Earth Pyramids was another adventure  while visiting Bolzano, Italy.  I  took the Renon cable car from Bolzano  up  to  Soprabolzano, on the Renon plateau.  It was a not-too- scary  12 minute ride with beautiful scenery.   Then I took  the Rittner railway to Klobenstein and  walked (following  the signs)  to  the Earth Pyramids. Here is a sample  of the  scenery   from the cable car to the  pyramids destination….

The  earth pyramids are a phenomenon caused by erosion. They consist of cone-shaped pillars formed by deposited clay and a boulder on top – often times  in bizarre shapes. Earth pillars started forming from moraine clay soil left behind after the last Ice Age when the glaciers  covering the valley melted away. In dry conditions  the soil is hard as stone, but, as soon as it rains, it turns into a  muddy mass, starts sliding, and so forms 10 to 15-meter-steep slopes. With more  rainfall, these slopes erode.

However, where there are rocks in the muddy mass, the clay soil underneath these rocks stays protected from the rain. So, while the surrounding material is continually carried off with the weather, the protected pillars literally rise out of the ground to form  earth pyramids.  The biggest pyramids  develop over thousands of years.   But once the boulder falls off its peak, an earth pyramid is  exposed to the rain,  shrinks  with each rainfall and  quickly  erodes from sight. Although while  one pyramid vanishes, another one  starts to form.

This is the picture perfect,  stunning  scenery  beyond the pyramids.

One last tidbit  to the  story – while standing and looking  at this gorgeous view – I heard a cuckoo bird!!  It sounds just like the clock!    Talk about perfect timing!!!     ( no pun  intended)

Thanks for reading!

Hope you enjoyed!