Teufelsmauer (Raetian Limes Ruins)

The Roman Limes has always been popularly known as the Teufelsmauer, and it is even listed under this name on many maps. It is easy to imagine how this term came about. With the best will in the world, the residents of this building could not explain the purpose of a slowly crumbling, seemingly endless wall that led straight through the middle of the landscape, through forest and fields, but sometimes also through the middle of individual villages. A wall that was just there? That couldn't be right. The devil must have had a hand in that. In the Middle Ages, no one could have guessed that this was once a huge border complex that separated the Roman Empire from the Germanic tribes for two hundred years.Source: Donaukurier

The western section of the Limes in the Ostalb district was evidently not built until after the middle of the 2nd century and then probably as a continuous wall. The excavation findings of the Dalkinger Limestore and two dendrochronologically determined dates point to the 1970s. At the latest since this time the border was tight. The westernmost part of the Rhaetian Limes from the Jagst valley to the provincial border in the Rotenbach valley near Schwäbisch Gmünd was guarded by several forts, all of which were built around 150 AD or a little later: the Böbingen, Schwäbisch Gmünd and Schirenhof and Lorch, which was already in the province of Upper Germany and, set back a little, the largest cavalry camp on the Limes in Aalen, the construction of which was completed in 164 AD.Our ancestors came up with the term Teufelsmauer for the final construction phase of the Rhaetian Limes. They couldn't explain the remarkable building in any other way. Even today, its dimensions command respect for the Romans: the approximately 3 meters high and 1.1 to 1.2 m thick wall was 168 kilometers long and only interrupted by palisades in river valleys. To build the wall alone, the Romans had to quarry at least ½ million cubic meters of stones, transport them to the Limes and process them there. In addition, about 290 stone watchtowers were built.ostalbkreis.de/sixcms/detail.php?_topnav=38&_sub1=166&_sub2=100841&_sub3=87579&_sub4=-1&id=87581

You can climb the watchtower when it is open