Bode Gorge

Apart from intrusions of Ramberg granite, which rose to the surface and solidified 300 million years ago in the Upper Carboniferous Period, and their associated veins of quartz, the ravine of the Bode also cuts through hornfels and knotenschiefer (a type of slate), as well as argillite and graywacke with quartz elements and diabase dikes from the Devonian Period, 400 to 370 million years ago.

The argillite at the rear of the gorge shows bands of colour in places that evinces the former strata of the marine sediments.

Kettle-holes, rapids and scouring in the rock alternate with islands of gravel and flat river banks.

The water regime inside the ravine is affected, however, by the dams owned by the Bodewerk in the upper reaches of the river.

The Luppbode is a lively, bubbling brook coming from the direction of Allrode which joins the Bode near Treseburg.

There is a rapid succession of habitats in the Bode Gorge that produces a tightly woven mosaic of vegetation, characterised by an especially rich variety of plant species.

The most common trees in the woods are sessile oak (Quercus petraea), large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), silver birch (Betula pendula) and rowan (Sorbus aucuparia).

Dominating the ground cover are plants like the wood bluegrass (Poa nemoralis), wavy hair-grass (Avenella flexuosa; especially in dry oak woods), white wood-rush (Luzula luzuloides), male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas), limestone oak fern (Gymnocarpium robertianum), wall hawkweed (Hieracium murorum), baneberry (Actaea spicata), small balsam (Impatiens parviflora), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis).

Plants such as the snowy mespilus (Amelanchier ovalis), dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria), browntop bent (Agrostis capillaris), sticky catchfly (Lychnis viscaria), blue stonecrop (Sedum reflexum) are particularly common.

Perennial honesty (Lunaria rediviva) and large white buttercup (Ranunculus platanifolius) may be found in places in the woods.

Such rarities include the wildcat, Bechstein's bat, peregrine falcon, black stork, middle spotted woodpecker.

In addition to brown trout it ish also home to loach, bullhead, three-spined stickleback and minnow.

The Bode Gorge receives hundreds of thousands of visitors per year and is one of the leading tourist destinations in Saxony-Anhalt.