Messel Pit
UNESCO World Heritage Site (1995), Germany'S First Natural Heritage Inscription: An Abandoned Oil Shale Pit Holding The Richest Known Record Of Life 48 Million Years Ago, From Whole Horses The Size Of Dogs To Insects With Their Colours Still On Them · Messel, Hesse
Forty-eight million years ago this was a deep, stagnant volcanic lake in a subtropical forest, and whatever fell into it sank into oxygen-free mud and stayed there. The result is the richest known record of life from that moment of the Eocene: horses the size of dogs, early primates, bats, birds, snakes and thousands of insects, many with gut contents, skin outlines and even structural colour preserved. The pit was dug for oil shale, then earmarked as a landfill in the 1970s, and a local campaign saved it; in 1995 it became Germany's first natural World Heritage Site. What a visitor should know is that the hole itself is a hole. The experience is a visitor centre built into the rim with a good exhibition and a terrace over the pit, plus a guided walk down onto the pit floor, which is the only way in. Most of the famous fossils are on show in Frankfurt and Darmstadt instead. Treat it as a strong two hours, not a day, and book the tour.
Visitor centre on the pit rim at Messel, between Darmstadt and Dieburg, southern Hesse, Messel, Hesse, Germany
The visitor centre keeps daily hours in the main season with a weekly closing day and much reduced winter opening, so confirm before driving out. Guided descents onto the pit floor run to a fixed timetable rather than on demand, need booking ahead, and are called off in heavy rain, ice or thunder because the pit road becomes unsafe - there is no indoor alternative to the descent. Tours are normally in German, with other languages only by arrangement for groups. The rim terrace and the exhibition are open whenever the centre is. Reaching the site without a car is awkward: regional buses from Darmstadt or Dieburg to Messel village leave a walk uphill, and taxis are the usual answer.