Postage stamp: sights - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1989 - 350 Pfennig

At Horn-Bad Meinberg (Lippe district), the monumental rock towers of Externsteine ​​tower out of the wooded, flat ridges of the eastern side of the Teutoburg Forest. Created by the interplay of weathering and erosion, reinforced by the ice ages, nature has modeled the up to 40 m high structures from the upcoming Kreidesandsteinüblagerungen. The rock group has attracted people at all times. The archaeological investigations carried out to explain and explain the man-made spaces, works of art and other traces of work produced evidence of many thousands of years of use and occupation. The first evidence, such as pieces of flint equipment, stems, blades and rockfall sites, can be dated back to the Paleolithic (around 10,000 BC). The Externsteine ​​have gained fame through the early medieval cross-relief relief, the upper and lower rock chapel and the grave cliffs. Steep, carved into the rock, stairs and a bridge can be reached at a dizzying height a rock chamber. Standing free to the east, one sees the so-called "bow niche" with a stand and outside, old, leading upstairs stairs. In the arched niche there is a conical shaped round window, oriented to the northeast to the sunrise point at the time of the summer solstice. It is believed that this facility was used in ancient times for astronomical observations. The stamp shows the Externsteine ​​from the west (back). (Text: The Minister of Economics, Small Business and Technology of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dusseldorf)