The Tiefenbach Waterfall is one of the tallest waterfalls in Saxony, yet few visitors realize it was actually created by human hands rather than nature. Dropping around 40 meters, it puts on an especially powerful show after heavy rain.

The waterfall sits above the town of Geising along the road to Altenberg, at roughly 660 meters above sea level, surrounded by the mining-shaped landscape typical of the Ore Mountains. It falls in two stages - the upper section, about 15 to 20 meters high, plunges freely and is fully visible from a viewing platform, while the lower section, of similar height, disappears into a rock tunnel beneath the platform and can only be glimpsed at its very top. The site is worth visiting in any season, but it is most dramatic in spring or after downpours, when flow can surge to around 5 m³/s compared to the usual 0.1-1.0 m³/s.

How to get there

• Geising or the Geising-Altenberg road — short hiking trail leading to the viewing platform, easy, a walk of a few minutes

Practical information

• The waterfall is stop number 26 on the Cross-Border Mining Trail (Grenzüberschreitender Bergbaulehrpfad)
• This artificial waterfall was created in 1954 in connection with the neighboring Tiefenbach tailings dam
• The viewing platform is directly accessible from the road between Geising and Altenberg

Ironically, the waterfall exists only because of an old tin-mining tailings dam that needed stabilizing nearby - and its history even includes a 1966 pipe rupture that sent a flood of red sludge over Geising.