Rügen

The Jasmund peninsula, consisting of massive layers of chalk with a thin morainic cover, reaches a height of 161m/528ft in the Piekberg.

The beautiful Stubnitz beech forests come to an abrupt end on the Königsstuhl, where a sheer chalk cliff with bands of flints plunges down to the sea from a height of 117m/384ft. The steep chalk cliffs of Stubbenkammer are a popular tourist attraction.

There are numerous prehistoric sites on Rügen, including remains of the Neolithic Lietzow culture, which supplied large areas of Central Europe with tools made from Rügen flint, and numerous megalithic chamber tombs and Bronze Age tumulus tombs.

In a sheltered inlet near Putgarten lies the old-world little fishing village of Vitt, once (like Vitt on the island of Hiddensee) a landing place used by the herring fleets of the Hanseatic towns.

At the northeastern tip of the Wittow peninsula are the lighthouse on Kap Arkona (46m/151ft) and remains of the ramparts of a fortified Slav settlement, the Jaromarsburg, which until its capture and destruction by the Danes in 1168 contained the principal sanctuary of the Western Slavs.