They say diamonds are forever and Believe It or Not!, there’s a town in Germany that’s loaded with them thanks to an ancient meteorite impact! Surprisingly, the area containing the diamonds isn’t remote, and you don’t need a treasure map to find them because, well, they’re everywhere! Keep reading to learn more about this gem-riddled city.
The Way the Cookie Crumbles
The Bavarian town of Nördlingen, Germany, sits atop a massive meteorite crater. The town’s first inhabitants settled at the site in 898 A.D., and by the Middle Ages, townspeople constructed a wall around the city to protect it. Believe It or Not!, Nördlingen is only one of three towns in Germany with completely intact medieval city walls!
The specific crater by which the town of Nördlingen sits atop is referred to as a rampart crater. A rampart crater is when the impact zone of an asteroid shoots debris out from the site of impact. The debris from the asteroid becomes fluidized and surrounds the impact site in what looks like a shelf and is known as the rampart.
Diamonds Dancing
The meteor’s initial impact created suevite , a rough-grained stone containing crystal, glass, and diamonds. The city’s church, constructed from suevite, contains about 5,000 carats worth of diamonds, and researchers estimate that the entire townsite is embedded with 72,000 tons of tiny diamonds!
However, there is one caveat: the diamonds are far too small to be of great value.
Share This Story
About The Author
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Step into the world of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, where truth is always stranger than fiction! Bui…
At Ripley’s, we’re always in search of the unbelievable – maybe it’s you! Show us your talents. Tell us a strange story or a weird fact. Share your unbelievable art with us. Maybe even sell us something that could become a part of Ripley’s collection!
Get lost in a vortex of weird and wonderful stories! Ripley’s twenty-first edition annual book is full of all-new, all-true stories from around the world.
Cats were often considered evil during the Middle Ages.
Robert Ripley began the Believe It or Not! cartoon in 1918. Today, Kieran Castaño is the eighth artist to continue the legacy of illustrating the world's longest-running syndicated cartoon!