25 years of World Natural Heritage: the Messel Pit

A quarter of a century ago, the treasury for researchers became Germany’s first Unesco heritage.

Petrified turtles during sex or the ancestors of horses: The Messel Pit in southern Hesse is a treasure trove for researchers. 25 years ago, the area became Germany’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the meter-thick, finely layered oil shale, fossils tell what the world looked like 48 million years ago. It is one of the richest mammalian fossil deposits in the world. In the visitor center, where Marie-Luise Frey, Managing Director of the World Heritage Grube Messel gGmbH (picture), is a fossil primeval horse, one of the valuable finds, is on display. When it is recognized as a World Heritage site, the pit is on the same level as the Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon or the Galapagos Islands. The partners are the state with 65 percent, the Senckenberg Society for Natural Research with 25 and the city of Messel with 10 percent.

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