Sylt

The land route to Sylt is by rail over the 11km/7mile long Hindenburg Causeway (Hindenburgdamm), built 1923-27 (cars carried between Niebüll and Westerland; c. 1 hour), which cuts across the Wattenmeer (nature reserve).

There is an airstrip at Westerland.

The Sylt-Ost peninsula (mostly fenland) extends to the east of Westerland. A road (11km/7mi) runs by way of Tinnum (pop. 1,800), with the ring fort of Tinnumburg, to Keitum (pop. 6,500) on the Wattenmeer, formerly the island's chief town. Typical Frisian houses (including the Altfriesisches Haus, 1739), the Sylt Heimatmuseum and the Late Romanesque church of St Severinus, standing on higher ground to the north.

7km/4.5mi southeast of Keitum is Morsum (12th century church), near the eastern tip of Sylt, where the Hindenburgdamm begins.

Half way along the west coast near Sylt, on the open sea, is the fashionable seaside resort of Westerland (founded 1857; pop. 10,000), the chief place on the island, with a long beach of fine sand, extensive treatment facilities, an indoor seawater pool with artificial waves, and an aquarium. It has an old village church (17th-19th C.) with a sundial of 1789.