Lange Anna
Interesting facts
- In 1934 the Nazi authorities tried to rename the stack "Nathurn", after its old name in the island's own Heligolandic Frisian dialect.
- Islanders traditionally called it Nathuurnstak, roughly the "north horn surf pillar", and over time it was also known as the Monk, the Nun, the Stallion and the Sentry.
- The nickname Lange Anna appears to belong to the same strand of German popular humour that gave the name Dicke Bertha to a famous giant cannon.
- In October 1965 a group of tourists staged a controversial "first ascent" of the stack; climbing it has since been strictly forbidden because the rock is so brittle.
- The weakest band of rock, a soft layer known as the Katersand, runs through the stack about 16 metres above its foot.
- Its little sister, the Kleine Anna, was born on 31 January 1976, when a rockfall cut it off from the cliff and the coastal path had to be moved inland.
- A 1998 study by Hamburg's technical university concluded that permanently stabilising the stack was not technically feasible.
- The sea wall that protects Heligoland's west coast, known as the Prussian Wall, runs for about 1.3 kilometres beneath the cliffs.
Why it is worth it
Lange Anna, "Tall Anna", is a sea stack of red sandstone at the north-western tip of Heligoland in the North Sea. The stack is 47 metres high and weighs about 25,000 tonnes, standing on a base of only about 180 square metres. It is made of red Buntsandstein, the same rock as the island's cliffs, and the layered colours of its sediments are clearly visible on its face.
Lange Anna was once part of the mainland of Heligoland, connected by a natural rock arch that collapsed on 16 May 1860, leaving the column standing alone. The sea keeps working on it: in 1976 a smaller neighbour, the Kleine Anna, broke away, and the weakest layer lies about 16 metres up. To protect the island, a long sea wall was built along the west coast between 1903 and 1927, and in 1979 the foot of the stack was reinforced. It has been protected as a natural monument since 1969. The origin of its name is uncertain; it seems to date from around 1900.
Its ledges are crowded in spring and early summer with breeding seabirds, especially guillemots, kittiwakes and gannets, and it forms a natural pair with the nearby Lummenfelsen cliff. Visitors cannot reach the rock itself but see it from the Klippenrandweg, a path of about 3 km that runs along the edge of the Oberland and makes a round walk of an hour and a half past the viewpoints.
Getting there
Heligoland lies about 70 km off the German mainland. From late March to early November the Halunder Jet catamaran sails from Hamburg via Cuxhaven, and in summer other boats run from Büsum. Small planes fly to the airfield on the neighbouring island of Düne. Wittmund on the mainland is about 68 km away, and Sylt Airport (GWT) about 86 km.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Lange Anna, is a 47-metre-high (154 ft) sea stack of Buntsandstein in the North Sea island of Heligoland, Germany. Its local name is Nathurn Stak. Climbing the stack is not allowed but tourists may view the rock from a distance.
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