How could this have happened? Unheard of. Unspeakable. Totally crazy. I just don’t understand how the town of Bomlitz isn’t on the Route of Megalithic Culture.
That was my first reaction.
After calming down, I realized that while Bomlitz might have almost a dozen prehistoric graves — they aren’t capped with all those mega-ton stones that this aforementioned Neolithic scenic route is most famous for.
My meltdown was averted, so I could really enjoy the ten burial mounds found along the Archaeology Trail, dating from around 1500 to 1200 B.C.
Bomlitz has eight districts, so seven more to go before our time here is done. Benefeld is one of the smallest, not even two square kilometers. And funny enough, it’s one of the most populated with some 2,200 people living here.
A far cry from the village of Ahrsen that’s more than five times its size (11 sqkm), with only 104 residents. Ahhh, room to stretch. I’m sure the fact that parts of this hamlet is a nature protected area has something to do with it.
Borg, a village of just over 600 residents, is where the old Saxon castle (Borg Hünenburg) from the 8th or 9th century was found. And Cordingen, along the Warnau River, is home to a 600 year old Mill that’s now a popular party venue.
Cordingen was made famous, BTW, not for its mill (OK, that helped), but because a local writer by the name of Arno Schmidt wrote about the place in his story Schwarze Spiegel, or Black Mirrors in English.
All the history and stuff aside, Bomlitz is home to one of Germany’s biggest bird parks. Bird watchers rejoice, you’ll find 700 species spread out over its 240,000 square meters through the Lüneburg Heath.
It’s all right that Bomlitz isn’t on some German scenic route (yet), it’s quite great in its own right.