Bay of Mecklenburg

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View of the Bay of Mecklenburg from Salzhaff looking towards Fehmarn. Am Salzhaff 2.JPG
View of the Bay of Mecklenburg from Salzhaff looking towards Fehmarn.
Map of Mecklenburg Bay Karte Mecklenburger Bucht.png
Map of Mecklenburg Bay

The Bay of Mecklenburg (German : Mecklenburger Bucht or Mecklenburgische Bucht; Danish : Mecklenburg Bugt), also known as the Mecklenburg Bay or Mecklenburg Bight, is a long narrow basin making up the southwestern finger-like arm of the Baltic Sea, between the shores of Germany to the south and the Danish islands of Lolland, Falster, and Møn to the north, the shores of Jutland to the west, and joining the largest part of the Baltic to the east.

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The Bay of Mecklenburg, which includes the Bay of Wismar and the Bay of Lübeck, connects to the Bay of Kiel in the northwest. Notable ports in the bay are Lübeck, Rostock and Wismar.

The Blinkerwall

In 2024, a 971-metre (3,186 ft) wall was discovered on the seabed at a depth of 21 metres (69 ft), 10 kilometres (6 mi) off the coast. Named "the Blinkerwall" by its discoverers, the wall is around 1 metre (3 ft) high. Its direction changes when it meets a series of larger boulders (too heavy to be moved by humans). This suggests that the smaller stones were positioned intentionally to link them together. In total, the wall's stones weigh more than 142 tonnes. It is thought to be Europe's oldest megastructure (around 10,000 years old) and may have been used by hunter-gatherers as a driving lane for pursuit of herds of reindeer. [1] [2]

The wall was constructed on land (perhaps beside a lake shore) in the period after the Weichselian glaciation, when the southern Baltic area was above ground. In the millennia following this, post-glacial rebound caused the land to sink, and the waters of the Baltic inundated the site. [2] This process preserves some Stone Age artifacts, which are more likely to have been erased had they remained above water. [2] Stone age structures have also been discovered in the inundated lands west of Denmark, the area known as Doggerland.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltic Sea</span> Sea in Northern Europe

The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North and Central European Plain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wismar</span> City in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Wismar, officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city of Mecklenburg after Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. The city was the third-largest port city in former East Germany after Rostock and Stralsund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poel</span> Municipality in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Poel or Poel Island, is an island in the Baltic Sea. It forms the natural northern and eastern boundaries of the Bay of Wismar on the German coast. The northern coast of the island is also on the south side of the large gulf known as the Bay of Mecklenburg, which Wismar Bay enters into. Insel Poel thus forms on its northern side the unofficial latitude of the northern boundary of the Wismar Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay of Lübeck</span> Basin off the coast of northeastern Germany

The Bay of Lübeck is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. It forms the southwestern part of the Bay of Mecklenburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay of Kiel</span>

The Bay of Kiel or Kiel Bay is a bay in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and the islands of Denmark. It is connected with the Bay of Mecklenburg in the east, the Little Belt in the northwest, and the Great Belt in the North.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victual Brothers</span> 14th century seafarers in the North and Baltic Seas

The Victual Brothers, Vitalien Brothers or Vitalian Brethren were a loosely organized guild of 14th century Germanic privateers. They initially included Mecklenburg nobility, but later became an organisation of commoners, and later evolved into piracy. The guild had a clear historical effect in that era on maritime trade in the North and Baltic Seas. As privateers, they provisioned blockaded locations and otherwise served as a naval contingent on behalf of regional rulers, with clients that included the Queen of Denmark, and rulers of Mecklenburg and East Frisia. As their activities turned to piracy, the aims changed to personal enrichment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boltenhagen</span> Municipality in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Boltenhagen is a German seaside resort in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern situated on the Baltic Sea coast 30 km east of Lübeck. It has a wide view of the Bay of Lübeck; a 5 km stretch of a wide and sandy beach, a boardwalk, restaurants and health spas. Boltenhagen is considered to be part of the German Riviera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walfisch</span> Island in Germany

Walfisch is an uninhabited German island, in the Bay of Mecklenburg in the Baltic Sea. It lies approximately 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) north of the city of Wismar, south of the island of Poel. The island is very flat and has a maximum circumference of about 500 by 300 metres, a surface area of 20 hectares and is a nature reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dassow</span> Town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Dassow is a town in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on a bay of the Baltic Sea, 20 km east of Lübeck and 2 km south of Lübeck-Travemünde. It is also close to the cities of Wismar and Schwerin, and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay of Wismar</span>

The Bay of Wismar or more commonly Wismar Bay or Wismarbucht is a well sheltered multi-sectioned bay in the southwestern Baltic Sea, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, and is considered the south-central part of the much larger arm of the Baltic known as the Mecklenburg Bay —a long fingerlike gulf oriented to the west-southwest (WSW) from the (central) Baltic proper. Wismar bay is considered one of the finest natural harbors on the Baltic, and served as the destination for much seaborne shipping until circa the 1910s when its minimum depths of 5 meters (16 ft) became too shallow for larger more modern ships. Today, because of the shallow sheltered waters the bay is the subject of much research via underwater archeology

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eckernförde Bay</span> Firth in the western Baltic Sea

Eckernförde Bay is a firth and a branch of the Bay of Kiel between the Danish Wahld peninsula in the south and the Schwansen peninsula in the north in the Baltic Sea off the lands of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The bay extends around 17 km (11 mi) deep into the land and is 10 km (6.2 mi) wide at its entrance where Booknis-Eck and Danish-Nienhof mark the endpoints. The bay is up to 28 m (92 ft) deep. The border to the Kiel Fjord lies at the Bülk Lighthouse. The once forested Danish Wahld peninsula between Kiel Fjord and Eckernförde Bay constituted the borderland between the Saxons and the Danes until the Middle Ages. At the inner end of the bay lies the town of Eckernförde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dassower See</span>

Despite its name, the Dassower See , sometimes called Lake Dassow or Dassow Bay in English, is not a lake, but a side bay, locally known as a wiek, of the Trave Fjord, northeast of Lübeck (Schleswig-Holstein) on the Baltic Sea.

The Klützer Winkel or Klützer Ort is a part of the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is in the western part of the district on the Baltic Sea between the Hanseatic towns of Lübeck (Priwall) and Wismar, north of Grevesmühlen and centred on Klütz. The hilly landscape of the Klützer Winkel was formed during the last ice age. Its highest points are the Hohe Schönberg, at 89 metres above mean sea level, and the Heideberg. The Klützer Winkel may also be considered a peninsula between the Bay of Lübeck and Bay of Mecklenburg, because from a line between the Dassower See and Wohlenberger Wiek it extends up to 10 km to the north. The area has a number of tourist attractions such as the Baltic Sea cliffs, the spa resort of Boltenhagen, the town of Klütz with its castle, Schloss Bothmer, and the railway museum as well as various other castles such as the castle of Gross-Schwansee, today a luxury hotel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorf Mecklenburg</span> Municipality in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Dorf Mecklenburg is a municipality in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located 6 km south of Wismar. It is home to the castle "Mikilenburg", that gave its name to the whole region known as Mecklenburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mühlenteich (Wismar)</span> Lake in Wismar, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Mühlenteich is a lake in Wismar, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Its elevation is 4 m (13 ft) and its surface area is 0.482 km2 (0.186 sq mi). The water body is highly indented. There is a prominent southern bay with two smaller islands and a distinct northern bay. The Mühlenteich has a north-south extension of about 1700 metres and a west-east extension of about 400 metres. Large parts of the pond shore, especially in the south, are marshy and mostly silted up. The Wallenstein Ditch, which is dammed in the pond, flows into it in the southwest and leaves it again in the north. In addition, the Mühlenbach flows off in the west through the inner city towards the Baltic Sea. Another tributary is a ditch from the south-east. The south-western part of the water body belongs to the nature reserve Teichgebiet Wismar-Kluß. The pond is used for commercial trout farming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hohwacht Bay</span> Bay in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Hohwacht Bay is a wide bay in the state of Schleswig-Holstein on Germany's Baltic Sea coastline. It is named after the village and seaside resort of Hohwacht. The nearest large town is Oldenburg in Holstein, about 5 kilometres inland. A number of nature reserves fringe the bay and there is a military training area along its eastern shore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuland Lighthouse</span> Lighthouse in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Neuland Lighthouse is a lighthouse in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein on the Baltic Sea coast that was in service from 1918 to 1996. It stands on the western shore of Hohwacht Bay about 1 kilometre north of the village of Behrensdorf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dueodde Lighthouse</span> Lighthouse

The Dueodde Lighthouse is located on the Danish island of Bornholm. It was built during the years 1960–62 and commissioned on 15 August 1962. It is 47 m (154 ft) in height, with a focal height of 48 m (157 ft). It is the nodal point of the southeast coast line, warning ships to keep away from the extreme southern tip of the island. Dueodde Lighthouse is Denmark's tallest lighthouse and one of the most important lighthouses of the Baltic Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hammer Odde Lighthouse</span> Lighthouse on Bornholm island, Denmark

Hammer Odde Lighthouse is located on the northernmost point of Hammeren, just outside Sandvig on the Danish island of Bornholm. A sand and gravel ocean bank, named David Bank, is situated 5.25 miles (8.45 km) from the lighthouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay of Neustadt</span>

The Bay of Neustadt or Neustadt Bay is a sub-bay within the Bay of Lübeck which, in turn, is part of the Bay of Mecklenburg in the Baltic Sea.

References

  1. Sample, Ian (12 February 2024). "Stone age wall found at bottom of Baltic Sea 'may be Europe's oldest megastructure'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 12 February 2024. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 Geersen, Jacob; Bradtmöller, Marcel; Schneider von Deimling, Jens; Feldens, Peter; Auer, Jens; Held, Philipp; Lohrberg, Arne; Supka, Ruth; Hoffmann, Jasper Justus Lutz; Eriksen, Berit Valentin; Rabbel, Wolfgang; Karlsen, Hans-Jörg; Krastel, Sebastian; Brandt, David; Heuskin, David (2024-02-20). "A submerged Stone Age hunting architecture from the Western Baltic Sea". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (8). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2312008121 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   10895374 .

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54°20′N11°40′E / 54.333°N 11.667°E / 54.333; 11.667