page_title: Rammelsberg
section_title: World Heritage Site
hierarchical_section_title: Rammelsberg / World Heritage Site
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Oberes Kunstrad im Erzbergwerk Rammelsberg. Goslar, Niedersachsen, Deutschland. English: An underground water mill of mine Rammelsberg. Deutschland, Goslar.
context_page_description: The Rammelsberg is a mountain, 635 metres high, on the northern edge of the Harz range, south of the historic town of Goslar in the North German state of Lower Saxony. The mountain is the location of an important silver, copper, and lead mine, the only mine which had been working continuously for over 1,000 years when it finally closed in 1988. Since 1992, the visitor mine of Rammelsberg has become a UNESCO World heritage site.
context_section_description: After more than 1000 years during which almost 30 million tonnes of ore were extracted, the mine was finally closed by the Preussag company on 30 June 1988 as the mineral deposits had been largely exhausted. A citizens' association argued forcefully against plans to demolish the surface installations and fill in the historic underground mine workings. Consequently, the disused mine was developed into a museum to preserve its heritage and display the history of the mine and its industrial equipment.
  In 1992 the museum became a UNESCO world heritage project together with Goslar's Old Town. In 2010 this world heritage site was expanded to include the Upper Harz Water Regale, Walkenried Abbey and the historic Samson Pit. The Rammelsberg Museum and Visitor Mine is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH).
  The historic mine has a number of special attractions including:
  the Roeder Gallery (with a flatrod system and several water wheels that support the drainage of the pit and the hoisting of ore; there is a replica in the Deutsches Museum in Munich)
  the Feuergezäher Vault (the oldest "nogged" (ausgemauert) underground mining space in Central Europe)
  the Rathstiefste Gallery (medieval drainage adit; decorated with coloured vitriol encrustations)
  the headframe (18th century)
  the Master Malter's Tower (Maltermeisterturm) (oldest above-ground mining building in Germany)
  old pithead dumps (the oldest being from the 11th and 12th centuries).
caption: Water wheel in the mining museum
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