Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain

The insane heat – 1,500 degrees at the blast furnace tapping – has gone, but the rest of the former Thyssen steelworks is still there, albeit different: the gasometer is now a pool for divers, the ore bunker is a climbing park, and the view from blast furnace 5 overlooks the western Ruhr District. Hard to believe that ores from all over the world – including some from the Siegerland – were once smelted here on a grand scale …

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Here, too, the Father Rhine is not far. From a greater height, you could certainly see as far as Düsseldorf or Essen. One would simply have to pile the rubble and the slag of the works on top of each other and there would be a magical mountain with a panoramic view. Dizzying - I think my imagination is going on a merry-go-round with me!

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Do you have anything to do with Al-sum, Alfred? Hardly. After all, the bustling village is located right at the mouth of the Emscher River in one of those sweeping bends in the Rhine. Perfect for a port, isn't it? I'd love to know if the place has a future ... or if one day "grass will grow over it" and only mighty chimneys will rise into the sky here, too.

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