For centuries, the Harz mountains have been shaped by mining. The Rammelsberg mine in Goslar mined for almost 1000 years without interruption, and was only closed down in 1988. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site four years later. The Upper Harz mining industry was one of the most important German metal districts – silver, copper, lead, iron and zinc were mined here, in some of the deepest mines in the world. To supply hydropower, 143 dams, hundreds of kilometres of ditches and kilometres of underground watercourses were built, called the Upper Harz Water Regale (Oberharzer Wasserregal). It is considered the world’s most important pre-industrial water management system for mining and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010.
Today, many of these 65 dam ponds, which still
