page_title: Nördlingen
section_title: Impact diamonds
hierarchical_section_title: Nördlingen / Impact diamonds
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Panoramablick vom Daniel über Nördlingen
context_page_description: Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 19,190. It was built in a 15 million year old & 25 km diameter wide impact crater - the Nördlinger Ries - of a meteorite which hit with an estimated speed of 70,000 km/h, and left the area riddled with an estimated 72,000 tons of micro-diamonds. The town was first mentioned in recorded history in 898, and in 1998 the town celebrated its 1100th anniversary. The town was the location of two battles during the Thirty Years' War, which took place between 1618 and 1648. Today it is one of only three towns in Germany that still have completely intact city walls, the other two being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl.
  Another attraction in the town is Saint George's Church's 90 m steeple, called "Daniel", which is made of a suevite impact breccia that contains shocked quartz. Other notable buildings are the town hall, St. Salvator church and the Spital, a former medieval hospital. The Ries crater museum is located in the well-preserved medieval tanner's quarter.
context_section_description: Stone buildings in the town contain millions of tiny diamonds, all less than 0.2 millimetres (0.0079 in) across. The meteorite impact — from a 1-kilometre-wide (0.62 mi) asteroid — that caused the Nördlinger Ries crater created an estimated 72,000 tonnes (71,000 long tons; 79,000 short tons) of them when it impacted a local graphite deposit. Stone from this area was later quarried and used to build the stone buildings.
caption: Panorama of Nördlingen from the Daniel
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