Children of the sea - the Allgäu and Lechtal Alps

Sand, mud, shells of dead animals, dead plants - from this are the mountains our Allgäu and Lechtal Alps created.

Before approx. 240 million years the present continents formed the huge Primeval continent Pangaea. Part of the sea that surrounded Pangaea was the Thetys Sea, the place where our mountains were formed. Here, over millions of years Calcareous shells of dead marine animals, sand, dead plant parts and mud to the seabed. From the initially loose sedimentary layers, the enormous pressure of the growing layers formed Sedimentary rocks.

What shaped the mountains of the Alps continues to this day - a pushing, lifting and folding of the former seabed.

Ice is responsible for the appearance of the Lech Valley today. The Würmeiszeit (110,000 - 10,000 BC) created the mighty Lech Glacierwhich reached as far as the foothills of the Alps with its ice masses. 800 metres of thick ice lay in the Reutte valley basin, with only the highest mountain peaks still visible. The Lech Glacier blocked the glaciers of the side valleys with its ice masses. This is the reason why the side valleys in the Lech Valley are known as Hanging valleys They hang over or flow into the main valley in a step several hundred metres high. Impressive gorges and waterfalls at the end of the side valleys still tell of this today.