Parkstein, Germany

Parkstein is one of the first places we went to in the Graf area. It is about 15 minutes outside of Graf and well worth the visit. There usued to be a castle there and you will find a little bit of the remains of it still. Now there is a church on top of what looks like a large hill in the middle of the village but once you get to it you will notice the large magma formations. It is a non active volcano. You do have to climb a few steps to the top where the church is but it is very beautiful at the top. You can see for miles or kilometers as they would put it. I also included a little clip from Wikipeia about Parkstein below.

Parkstein is a municipality in the county of Neustadt (Waldnaab) in Bavaria in Germany. In 2006, it counted approximately 2500 citizens within its district. The origins of its castle, built atop a conical shaped mountain, date back to around the year 1000. A first written account of its existence can be traced back to the year 1053 in the documentations of the monks of Niederalteich of the Reichstag in Merseburg.

Most likely in November of 1796, Alexander von Humboldt called the 24 million year old basalt formation the most beautiful he had encountered in Europe. According to the Bavarian State Geology Office, during the Tertiary, now also called Paleocene-Pliocene period, a number of active volcanoes produced liquid magma in Northern Bavaria, mostly due to the continental collision of Europe and Africa. As a result, not only the Alps but a number of fissures and cracks began to form throughout central Europe where magma could rise. Most of the Parkstein's magma cooled below the surface, leading to the crystalline column formation that is now exposed as a result of erosion.