The height of the f-hole is Curonian. Dune Efa (Curonian Spit)

The Efa Dune is located at 42 kilometers of the Curonian Spit, stretching from Zelenogradsk (Kaliningrad region) to Lithuanian Klaipeda. The sand ridge received its name in honor of Wilhelm Franz Eph, a German scientist and engineer who was involved in strengthening and landscaping the spit.

Oddly enough, but a couple of hundred years ago, today’s attraction posed a serious problem for the local population. Long-term deforestation and cattle grazing led to the fact that in the 18th-19th centuries. A real ecological disaster broke out in this area of the dune landscape. The place turned into a lifeless desert, and the sands that began to move began to fill up the houses of local residents. The German authorities (at that time the territory of modern Kaliningrad belonged to Prussia) decided to stop the advance of the dunes by entrusting the development of a project to strengthen particularly dangerous sections of the spit to V.F. Efu. It is thanks to the efforts of the engineer that today’s visitors to the heights of Efa can admire its desert landscapes without fear of being buried under a layer of sand.

Walk among the dunes

Regular excursions are organized to the Efa dune, but at the same time, many travelers prefer to get acquainted with the natural beauty of the height on their own. Since the area of the site is small, it is easy to get around on foot. The tourist route passes through the southwestern slope of the Orekhovaya dune. The highest point of this majestic dune is the height of Efa (64 m above sea level).

Please note: to avoid accidents, walking on the Efa dune itself is prohibited. For walks and excursions, wooden boardwalks are used here, leading to the main viewing areas.

The sand ridge is located a little away from the 42 kilometer of the highway, as evidenced by the road sign. If you are traveling with your own car, then leave it at the roadside parking lot and walk along the wooden boardwalk passing through the pine forest. Along the way you can come across a large number of information stands telling about the flora and fauna of the Curonian Spit, as well as the history of this amazing natural-anthropogenic landscape.

Walking along the footbridges winding among the snow-white hills, don’t be too lazy to climb the Orekhovaya dune. It is from here that a wonderful view of the Curonian Lagoon, the Baltic Sea and the nearest village of Morskoe opens.

An interesting fact: the history of the village of Morskoye began in the 13th century. The first settlement on this section of the spit was founded by the knights of the Teutonic Order, giving it the name Pilkoppen. Throughout its existence, the village was periodically covered with sand, which is why it changed its location three times.

The height of Efa is equipped with 2 observation platforms, from which you can not only admire the cosmic landscape of the ridge, but also see the remains of the dune fortification system invented by a German scientist. On some slopes, fragments of fences made of dry reed stems are still preserved. Herbs with a powerful root system were planted in these improvised cells, which helped hold the sand mountains in place.

How to get there

Since the Efa Dune is located in close proximity to the highway, it is better to get here by car or bus. You can rent a car immediately upon arrival in Kaliningrad. Those who prefer to travel by public transport have two options: bus route 593, which goes from Kaliningrad to the village of Morskoye, or a trip on route 210, which departs from Zelenogradsk.

The Curonian Spit is a source of special pride for the Kaliningrad region, a nature reserve and a truly unique place. The spit is a hundred-kilometer strip of sand, which, under the influence of winds, has been creeping towards land for centuries. Wandering dunes and dense forests, villages and deserted swamps, wild boars and foxes, legends and sagas - all this is here on the spit.

The Curonian Spit begins near Zelenogradsk and, divided in half by the border, stretches to the Lithuanian Klaipeda. Almost at the very edge of its Russian part is the highest dune - Orekhovaya, with a peak named after the forester Wilhelm Franz Ef. It is almost impossible to drive past: after forty kilometers of almost complete absence of civilization (with the exception of a couple of villages and small parking lots with toilets), you will be greeted by souvenir shops, stalls with smoked fish and a parking lot filled with cars.

In one direction, a boardwalk leads towards the beach, along which stretches a foredune, created back in the 19th century. Despite the small height, it offers views of the vast forests of the Curonian Spit. The beach is so wide that, probably, even in the hottest weather it should be quite free.

On the other side of the parking lot there is a tourist route. The same wooden path leads to observation platforms (there are two of them) through a coniferous forest. This is a real corner of Ural nature: pine trees, ferns, paths littered with yellow needles. The forest is very light, transparent, weightless, and in gratitude it was for its creation that people immortalized the name of Efa.

And it was like this. Deforestation on the spit led to the fact that the dunes, blown away by the wind, moved towards the Curonian Lagoon, and the village of Morskoe (Pillkoppen) was in danger of being buried by the Walnut Dune (Petsch Dune). At that time, there were different ways to “fix” the dunes, but all of them had an effect decades later. Efa proposed a simple but effective way of planting trees (with a piece of soil), and after five years the work on the Walnut Dune was completed. The village was saved. More than a hundred years have passed since then, and the dune has not moved. It does not change its height (61 m); it is along it that the same tourist route with observation decks opens up to the bare nomadic dunes.

7. View from the first observation deck

8. Path to the second observation deck

9. View from the second observation deck on the Lithuanian Nida

The Curonian Spit surprised me with its diversity: here you can just lie on the beach or walk through the forests, you can plunge into history or the intricacies of nature conservation - there is a holiday for every taste. There are cafes and recreation centers, old houses, lakes and completely unexpected surprises. For example, in winter we saw people feeding apples to wild boars that came out onto the road. However, this is a completely different story.

A story with photos about one of the most picturesque tourist routes Curonian Spit — "Height of Efa", laid along the slopes Orekhovaya dunes near Morskoye village.

Dune Nut or Petsch(German: Petschberg) is part of the Great Dune Ridge, which begins at the 16th kilometer of the Curonian Spit. The western windward slopes of the Great Dune Ridge are long and gentle, while the eastern leeward slopes are short, steep and often fall into the Curonian Lagoon or onto the narrow plain located on its shores. The average height of the dunes of the ridge is 35 meters, and the maximum height is the Orekhovaya dune - 64 meters. Some visitors mistakenly call it “Efa Dune” after the name of the tourist route. In fact, only its highest point is named after Efa - in honor of the famous dune inspector Wilhelm Franz Efa, who was the first to come up with the idea of arranging foredunes in order to strengthen the Curonian Spit. In years past, at the top of the Walnut Dune there was a small monument to the person whose name the peak is named after, but it has not survived to this day.

Before the start of large-scale strengthening work, the dunes of the Curonian Spit were mobile (currently about a third of them remain) and seriously threatened the villages of local residents. For example, Morskoye village(formerly Pilkoppen) is located literally a stone's throw from the Petsch dune overhanging it, and for this reason it had to change its location three times to escape the sands advancing from the west. On the site of the very first location of the Morskoye village there is now dune Staroselskaya(Altdorferberg).

Curonian Spit, Morskoye village

Once upon a time, on the current site of the village there was a small Curonian village named Pilkupa. In 1283, the Teutonic knights, who were actively expanding into the lands of modern Poland, Russia and the Baltic states, captured the Curonian Spit and founded a castle on the site of the village Neuhaus(“New House”), not far from which a German settlement arose Neustadt("New town" ). However, this name did not take root and in 1663 it was renamed Pillekop(or, in German, Pielkoppen). After the annexation of part of East Prussia to the USSR in 1945, Pilkoppen was renamed Marine.

Shifting dune sands posed a constant threat to Pilkoppen, and it was precisely to eliminate this threat that Wilhelm Franz Efa worked throughout his adult life. In 1888, sand almost covered the village again, but this time the long-term work to strengthen the dunes bore fruit and another sand disaster was averted.

By the way, the sands did not always threaten human settlements - this began only after the inhabitants of the Curonian Spit destroyed the forests growing on it and turned the land into a sandy desert. About 6-7 thousand years ago, Baltic winds gradually deposited sand and formed a long narrow strip of land, later called the Curonian Spit. It took nature several more centuries for plant seeds to take root in the infertile sand and for the dunes to become covered in summer and bushes. And in this natural way - by the roots of plants - the dunes were very effectively held in place. But it took man very little time to, with his thoughtless actions, upset the fragile balance that had been formed over centuries - the forests were cut down, and the dunes began to attack his homes. And so, fleeing the advancing sand, people had to restore what they themselves had destroyed: again planting plants on the slopes of the dunes that could hold the sand in place. And the already mentioned Wilhelm Franz Efa made a huge contribution to this work. A large-scale and expensive project to strengthen the dunes and save villages from sand implied the creation of a protective foredune along the entire 98-kilometer length of the Curonian Spit, designed to protect the spit from sea waves, wind and sand driven by it, as well as strengthening the moving ridge of large white dunes stretching along the coast Curonian Lagoon.

And, although a lot has been done in the century and a half that has passed since the start of dune strengthening work, the sands are still moving - this can be seen in the half-buried wooden flooring that lines the paths on the “Heights of Efa” tourist route. In addition, the movement of sand can be heard - sometimes the ear catches a barely audible rustling or quiet whistle: these are grains of sand, moving, rubbing against each other.

So work to strengthen the dunes of the Curonian Spit continues to this day. In the village of Morskoye, a sand spit is clearly visible, which is the result of work to strengthen the coast carried out in the second half of the 20th century: an artificially reclaimed spit and reed islands protect the coastline of the village from erosion.

Curonian Spit, Efa Height

In 2000, the artificially created landscape of the Curonian Spit was included in the UNESCO List of Natural and Cultural Heritage. Currently, one of the most interesting tourist routes of the Curonian Spit, “Height of Efa,” is laid along the slopes of the Orekhovaya dune.

Life hack: how I save on hotels

In addition to traditional and well-known tools - such as Booking or Hotellook, new online services have recently appeared that make the life of a traveler much easier and pleasantly protect the thickness of his wallet. One of them - Roomguru– I use it myself all the time and recommend it to all my friends and acquaintances. This service compares prices for an object in 30 booking systems at once and offers you the most interesting options. In addition, it tracks discounts and special offers.

Wishing you vivid impressions from the Curonian Spit and the heights of Efa!
Your Roman Mironenko

After the first day on Kos, we had walks through cities and towns, visiting architectural sights, hanging out in amber shops, and visiting museums. And after all this, on the last day of the vacation I wanted to go back to nature and to the sea. And we returned to Kos.
Here is the checkpoint at the entrance to the reserve.

If you enter by personal car, you will be charged a fee of about 300 rubles. Locals living on Kos, of course, have a pass; they do not take money from passengers. If you enter by bus, no one collects money from you either, however, my heart feels that somehow a small extra charge is still included in the fare. Compare prices: for approximately the same distance towards Kaliningrad and Kos, we paid 42 and 72 rubles, respectively. Well, this is nothing, of course.

This time it was decided to explore the part of the Spit close to the Lithuanian border, and we walked along the magnificent routes of Efa Heights and Swan Lake.

Height of Efa.
“Efa” is not a beautiful, incomprehensible feminine noun, but the genitive case of the proper name “Ef”. Franz Ef is another master forester who saved the village of Kosy from the uncontrollable sand.
The 1.5 km long route is located at 42 km of the spit, to the right of the highway. It runs along the southwestern slope of the Orekhovaya (Petsch) dune, which was planted with forest in the 80s. 19th century. At that time, this dune was rapidly moving towards the Curonian Lagoon. The village of Morskoe (Pillkoppen), which can be seen from the observation deck along the route, was in danger of being buried. During the sand disaster, the village changed its location three times to escape the onset of wandering dunes. Intensive systematic forest planting was required. They lasted five years, and they were led by the dune inspector (what a title, huh?) Franz Ef. Therefore, one of the highest points of the peninsula was called the Efa Heights, and the dune inspector himself began to be called the king of the Curonian Spit.

The trail goes up, but the walking is easy and pleasant, because this is one of the few routes on Kos, lined with wooden flooring.

On the sides there is a beautiful coniferous forest, you can breathe easily and somehow differently, so unlike the city or even the Moscow region.

There are two observation platforms along the route. From the first - a view of the slopes of the dunes opposite the sea, of the forest and undergrowth. The beauty around is such that you want to stay here.

However, the trail calls, go up a little more and here is the second observation deck at the top of the dune. A magnificent view of the bay opens up in front of you. The dunes run down to the water sparkling in the sun in smooth folds-waves of a dazzling white tablecloth. It’s impossible to take your eyes off: time after time, again and again, your gaze travels from the beginning of the sand near the guardian trees to the mirror of the bay.

Don’t listen to those who tell you that if you have already been to the heights of Muller, you don’t need to go to the heights of Efa (the real advice that we were given). They are completely different. As I already wrote, Müller’s height is a green forest height. A remarkable feature of the route to the heights of Efa is that it passes along the border of white and “green sands” - a surprisingly contrasting and unforgettable combination. White sands are loose sand massifs of the Staroderevenskaya dune (Altdorferberg).

By the way, depending on the type of vegetation cover, the Spit dunes today are called white, that is, devoid of vegetation, gray, that is, covered with grass vegetation, and green, that is, planted with forest. Since the crest and slopes of the dune are practically not overgrown in natural conditions, they continue to be strengthened with fascine fences, just like centuries ago.
This photo shows today's work on strengthening the sands:

The beauty of the “living”, that is, open dunes, is the greatest value of the Spit. And despite all the measures taken, it is gradually being lost. Although the bulk of the Great Dune Ridge, the most important element of the peninsula's topography, is fixed, moving dunes make up about one-third. And this one third, driven by constant western winds, intensively dissipates and moves to the Curonian Lagoon, pouring into it, losing significant volumes of sand and height.

That is why on all, without exception, posters and special signs on Kos there are written reminders and prayers for all our naughty, careless tourists greedy for a good shot: do not leave the path covered with flooring, do not go out onto the sand, do not trample the precious plants that hold it and etc. Wave erosion and wind erosion already have their destructive effect, especially during strong storms.
As always, to great regret, for some, the law is not a decree. We personally saw people walking freely among the dancing trees and going down the dunes to Swan Lake. And this is not yet the season, when there is really no one on Kos yet. And it’s scary to even imagine what’s going on here during the mass tourist rush.

Returning along the route to the road, we walked in the other direction from the highway (it’s very close there) and came out to a beautiful beach

In any place on the Curonian Spit, in order to access the sea, you need to overcome a long and fairly wide sand bank.

This is a foredune - a protective wall that protects the peninsula from storm waves and constantly blowing westerly winds. It is not entirely a natural formation: it was created over the course of a century, starting in 1803, using natural coastal beach dunes. Today the foredune has unequal width (from 10 to 70 meters) and height (from 3 to 12 meters).

Having poured the ubiquitous sand out of our sneakers, we returned to the road and walked towards the village of Morskoye.
To be continued.

TOURISTS' ANSWERS:

Let's look at the main attractions of the Curonian Spit.

Ornithological station.

One of the places that is visited during excursions on the Curonian Spit is an ornithological station called “Fringilla” (which means finch in Latin). The station was founded at the beginning of the twentieth century. The place for it was not chosen by chance; thousands of birds fly over the spit in autumn and spring. Accordingly, the station operates during this period. The birds are caught with special nets, registered and banded. An excursion to the station will be very interesting for children; they will be able to get acquainted with the peculiarities of bird life, ringing methods and the life of ornithologists.

The station is located near the village of Rybachy, on the 23rd kilometer of the Curonian Spit.

Royal Forest.

A walking tourist route passes through the “Royal Forest”. This forest. Consisting mainly of coniferous trees, it was a nature reserve even under the German kings, and is therefore well preserved. Especially prized are the giant thujas, which were brought at one time from North America. The length of the trail is about three kilometers, part of the path passes along the old road along which Peter I himself once passed. Bor is located on the sixth kilometer of the spit, on the side of the Curonian Lagoon.

Height of Efa.

Height Efa is the highest point of the Orekhovaya dune. This dune serves as a reminder of human irresponsibility, as its appearance is the result of deforestation. It was named after the German dune explorer Wilhelm Franz Eph, who managed to stop its further advance thanks to green spaces. The tourist route to this dune begins at the 42nd kilometer of the spit, a little before reaching the village of Morskoye. After walking two hundred meters along the forest path, you will reach an observation deck from which you can see an unusual landscape of dunes, the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. Walking on the dune itself is prohibited, otherwise you will have to pay a fine.

Dancing forest.

This place is full of mysteries and mysticism, one of the most famous natural attractions of the spit. The forest was planted relatively recently, in the early 60s of the last century. The tree trunks are bent under the influence of some unknown force, the explanation of which has not yet been found. The Dancing Forest is located on the 37th kilometer of the Curonian Spit.

Temple in the village of Rybachy.

This is a small architectural landmark reminiscent of the German past. The church was built in 1873, during Soviet times it was used for economic purposes, and in the 90s it was transferred to the Orthodox Church.

Muller height

Another observation deck, from the height of which you can see beautiful views of the surrounding area and Lake Chaika. Located at the 32nd kilometer, near the village of Rybachy.

Is the answer helpful?

Curonian Spit, is a sandy peninsula and a national park at the same time, which separates the Baltic Sea from the freshwater Curonian Lagoon. The Curonian Spit looks like a sandy shore with different widths from four hundred meters to four kilometers. The length of the spit is ninety-eight kilometers. It is noteworthy that the territory of the spit belongs to two countries at once - Lithuania and Russia. For two centuries now, the Curonian Spit has been attracting vacationers from Germany, Lithuania and Russia. What tourists like about these places are the excellent beaches and amazing nature. In one day, you can swim in the salt water of the Baltic Sea and in the fresh waters of the Curonian Lagoon. The Curonian Spit has also earned its popularity due to the fact that the weather here is almost always wonderful. But tourists come here not only for good weather. There are many very interesting sights in these places, although mostly natural, but this does not diminish the beauty of these places, but on the contrary increases. So I’ll try to write to you briefly about them.

Dancing Forest. This forest is located directly on the territory of the national park that we are talking about today. The forest got its name for the reason that almost all pine trees, if not all or most of them, have an uneven trunk shape; what causes this anomaly is unknown, but it is a reliable fact. It is also interesting that besides pine trees, there are no other trees here, why is also not known. Environmentalists claim that the Dancing Forest is a very fragile and vulnerable place, but unfortunately not all tourists take this seriously. In order to minimize the risk of damage, a special ecological trail was laid here, and if you follow it strictly, you don’t have to worry about causing harm to the beauty that surrounds you.
The strange behavior of pine trees, which do not want to grow evenly, causes bewilderment not only among tourists, but also among scientists. There is an assumption that the special geomagnetic activity characteristic of this area is to blame. According to another theory, this behavior of the pines is caused by the intervention of guests from other planets, but this is at least funny, and at most absurd. If you want to see this mystery of nature with your own eyes, you can easily get here by taxi or bus.

Dune Efa. The peculiarity of this sand dune is that it is mobile, and also the highest on the spit. Many tourists call this place the only European desert.
Finding the dune is very easy, since it is located not far from the village of Morskoye, which is famous for its beauty. The dune begins at the sixteenth kilometer of the spit and then stretches along the entire bay. I managed to find out why the dune was given such an unusual name, although not right away. They named it in honor of the forester Franz Ef, who in these places was studying and fixing shifting sands. Thanks to the efforts, perseverance, perseverance and work of this scientist, the threat of the dune attacking the village of Morskoye was forever averted.
The dune has an impressive height of sixty-four meters and just imagine if this colossus suddenly begins to approach your house. Horror, and that's all! The dune was not only tamed, but also equipped with an observation deck, from which you can climb to admire stunning sea views.

Museum of Russian Superstitions. I like this name better, and it is also called the “Wood Museum”. This is a rather small-sized museum, in which the entire exhibition is presented in several wooden sculptures. The sculptures mainly depict birds and animals. The sculptures are made from such tree species as aspen, pine, birch, oak and rowan. In addition to wooden birds and animals, the museum’s collection includes more than forty bells, which are also made of wood. The management of the museum came up with an unusual move, since all visitors can touch the exhibits with their hands, and the ones they like the most can even be purchased. The museum of superstitions is located in a real wooden hut, very much like a fairy-tale one. Near the hut, there are benches and you can sit on one of them and imagine yourself as a hero or heroine, one of the Russian fairy tales and Baba Yaga. Visiting the museum is paid, but not expensive, since the price of one ticket is seventy rubles. Those who want to take a memorable photo against the backdrop of the exhibits must pay an extra symbolic amount of thirty rubles for this pleasure. If you would like to be given a short tour of the museum, then there will be no problems with this and the owner of the gallery himself will appear before you as a guide. The museum is open every day, but has a day off on Monday.

Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh. This Orthodox church is the main, one might even say cult, attraction of the village of Rybachy. This is not an ordinary church, since it has very great architectural and historical value, which is why it actually attracts hundreds of tourists from all over the post-Soviet space and beyond. At the very beginning of its existence and until recently, this building was a Lutheran church, and only very recently it became an Orthodox church. The shrine was erected in 1873. The German architect Tischler worked on the creation of the project and on its implementation. We must pay tribute to the creator, since his brainchild has been beautifully preserved and has survived to this day in excellent condition. The building looks quite massive. It is built of red brick, and its top is decorated with a small turret, which is quite in the Lutheran style.
It is especially surprising that the temple has survived to this day, if you know that during the Second World War, within its walls there was a workshop that was engaged in the production of fishing nets, and this continued until 1999. In the same 1999, the temple was re-consecrated and named in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Amazing, right? During its entire existence, the temple has never been rebuilt or seriously undergone restoration.