Aachen Zeitschleife (Time Loop) – Forgotten Places

Experience a constantly changing landscape on this tour on the edge of the third largest opencast mine in the lignite mining area. The time windows on this route tell of gigantic changes: from the Celtic period to the 20th century, mining and opencast mining shaped the area around the town of Eschweiler. The mining of lignite brought work and prosperity, but to free it up, villages and countryside disappeared.

Now man and nature are causing new change: Extensive recreation areas have emerged from the abandoned mining areas. Water now covers old mining areas and children play where dredging used to take place. But what has passed should not be forgotten, so look through the time windows along the way and immerse yourself in the images and sounds of long-gone places.

The Eschweiler Talbahnhof is your starting point and from there you drive after a section on the Inde to the Bergehalde Auf der Kippe. Continue to the beautiful Blausteinsee: At the rest area and adventure center you first have the opportunity to learn a bit about this landscape before you drive down to the lake shore. Jump into the cool water or let your eyes wander from the viewing platform before diving into the fields at the Schlangengraben. Here you will discover information boards and memorial stones reminiscent of the resettled villages. They had to give way to opencast mining.

At the Inden opencast mine you can look directly into the opencast mine and thus get an impression of the dimensions that human intervention still has on the landscape today. As an architectural landmark of the Indeland, the Indemann towers 36 meters high on the Goltsteinkuppe. Its numerous viewing platforms offer far-reaching, spectacular panoramic views of the landscape. At the foot of the Indemannes, a playground with lots of play equipment offers pure fun for the little ones. Along the Inde it finally goes back to the starting point of the round.