Alsum mountain
Once a rubble dump, today one of the most interesting vantage points in the Ruhr area: from the Alsumer Berg you can see the north of Duisburg with ThyssenKrupp Steel in the east. The Hamborn kiln group, the Schwelgern coking plant and the two large blast furnaces in Schwelgern are right at your feet. In the west, the view opens up towards the Lower Rhine. Especially in the evening hours, when the blast furnaces are tapped, photographers are drawn to the summit of the heap.
On the site of the former shipping and fishing village of Alsum at the mouth of an arm of the Emscher, one of the typical "mountains" of the region rises today - a slag heap. As early as 1892, the Union of German Emperors had used the area to set up the first coal loading area. This port, however, sank into the Rhine during a flood in the winter of 1925/26. The basin was filled and operations were relocated to the port of Schwelgern, a little further north. In the years that followed, the town of Alsum, which now belongs to Duisburg, was threatened with sinking further and further into the Rhine due to the subsidence, since the coal was mined in the ground below the town. Therefore, the Duisburg City Council decided in 1954 to fill the area with rubble and use it to create a heap. Not only industrial rubble was dumped here, but also war debris.
The former rubble dump Alsumer Berg - also known locally as Beecker Halde - is now a landscaped conservation area and a popular excursion destination in the region. The heap can be reached on foot directly via the Alsumer Steig; visitors can reach it by bike via the Rhine dike. Panorama boards explain the view at three vantage points on the heap.
