The Wartturm is a rock tower in Saxon Switzerland

Saxon Switzerland

Saxon Switzerland is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe Sandstone Mountains....

 in East Germany near the famous Bastei rocks. It stands high above the Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

, just below the town of Rathen

Rathen

Rathen is a village in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, in Saxony, Germany, about 35 km southeast of Dresden on the Elbe River. Rathen has between 400 and 500 inhabitants....

 and dominates the view from the Bastei and Rathen looking downstream.
On 22 November 2000 the Wartturm was the scene of one of the most spectacular rockfall

Rockfall

Rockfall or rock-fall refers to quantities of rock falling freely from a cliff face. A rockfall is a fragment of rock detached by sliding, toppling, or falling, that falls along a vertical or sub-vertical cliff, proceeds down slope by bouncing and flying along ballistic trajectories or by rolling...

s for decades in Saxon Switzerland. About a third of the rock broke off and some 450 m³ of sandstone with an estimated weight of 800 tonnes crashed over 60 to 75 m into the valley. It was the largest quantity of falling rock since a slide in 1961 on the Bienenkorb, which did not fall from such a great height. The cause was suspected to be progressive weathering

Weathering

Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soils and minerals as well as artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, biota and waters...

 of a fissure running through the rock. A climber, who was staying in a hut below the rock, was uninjured because the boulders landed a few metres away from the hut.

Despite the loss of large sections of rock the Wartturm continues to be a popular climbing peak

Climbing peak

A climbing peak may refer to a mountain or hill peak or a rock formation that has to be ascended by climbing. The term is common in Germany where it is specifically used of free-standing rock formations in the climbing regions of Saxon Switzerland, Zittau Mountains and other nearby ranges in the...

 in the Saxon Switzerland Climbing Region

Saxon Switzerland climbing region

Saxon Switzerland is one of the best-known climbing regions in Germany. The region is largely coterminous with the natural region of the same name, Saxon Switzerland, but extends well beyond the territory of the National Park within it. It includes the western part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains...

.

As a result of the rockfall at the Wartturm, the State Office for the Environment, Agriculture and Geology of the Free State of Saxony has begun test drilling to investigate more closely the causes of rockfalls and the long term progress of weathering of sandstone in Saxon Switzerland.