Imagine climbing the narrow church tower of Noerdlingen's Gothic church and experiencing glimmering walls all along.Why? The church tower, and all the other buildings within the medieval city wall contain  tiny diamonds, an estimated 72,000 tons of diamonds, embedded in the rocks, called suevite, which the townsfolk used to build their places. Unbeknown to them, these tiny gemstones formed when an asteroid hit the ground some 15 million years ago, travelling at an estimated speed of 25 km per second. This huge impact transformed carbon bubbles instantly into  diamonds. The crater the asteroid created is approximately 26 km wide, the site of today's town.What makes Noerdlingen unique is not the fact that these rocks exist, but the sheer quantity of it.If you have a geological interest visiting the local RiesKrater Museum will be rewarding.  But history and archaeology buffs also find lots to admire, the town boosts of one of the only complete remaining town walls in Germany.Noerdlingen can easily be reached by car or train from Stuttgart, Muenchen or Nuernberg.
