Neandertal (valley)

The Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, about 12 kilometers east of Düsseldorf, straddling the towns of Erkrath and Mettmann. It formed as a limestone gorge cut by the river, originally known for dramatic cliffs, waterfalls and caves, though large-scale limestone quarrying in the 1800s and 1900s removed much of the original canyon walls. In August 1856, quarry workers found skeletal remains in a cave called the Kleine Feldhofer Grotte, a find later named Neanderthal 1 and recognized as one of the first identified specimens of Homo neanderthalensis; further excavations in 1997 and 2000 recovered remains of at least three more individuals dating to about 40,000 years ago. The valley takes its modern name from Joachim Neander, a 17th-century pastor and hymn writer who drew inspiration from the gorge, and the Neanderthal Museum now stands on the site.