Germany observation tower
Joseph Cross
You can see 124 km from here, looking east.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 124 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 124 kmFarthest ridgelooking east
- 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 557Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 583 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 557 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are in April and in September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Febwest4 min before the sea-level sunset23%
- Marwest4 min before the sea-level sunset28%
- Aprwest6 min before the sea-level sunset37%
- Maynorth-west8 min before the sea-level sunset31%
- Junnorth-west10 min before the sea-level sunset30%
- Julnorth-west8 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Augnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Sepwest4 min before the sea-level sunset35%
- Octwest2 min before the sea-level sunset29%
- Novsouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset22%
- Decsouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Joseph Cross.
Observation tower in Harz
Joseph Cross is an observation tower in Germany, 583 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 124 km away, looking east.
557 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Brocken (1,141 m), 36 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.
The skies are clearest in April and in September.
Get there and stay
- Going upCheck the opening hours before you go: towers and decks close in bad weather.
- Breitensteincampsite · 5.7 km · 8 within 10 km
- Naturresort Schindelbruchplace to stay · 1.2 km · 60 within 10 km
- Stolbergnearest town · 3.5 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in StolbergBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Erfurt-Weimar Airport (ERF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 67 km in a straight lineCar hire at LEJ airport (Schkeuditz)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 14other viewpoints within 5 kmKrummschlachttalklippen, Lutherbuche, Nusshaynblick and 11 more
- 36named peaks within 5 kmGroßer Auerberg, Josephshöhe, Höhe and 33 more
- 28marked trails within 3 kmLutherweg Sachsen-Anhalt, Wanderweg Schwenda, Gelber Punkt Weg and 25 more
- 23shelters and huts within 5 kmSieben Wege, Mägdefleck, Batkes Wiese and 20 more
- 7car parks within 3 km
- 2visitor centres within 5 kmTourist-Information, Projektbüro für nachhaltigen Tourismus
- 5restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 8campsites within 10 kmBreitenstein, Wohnmobil Parkplatz Ferienpark Birnbaumteich, Ferienpark Birnbaumteich and 5 more
- 60places to stay within 10 kmNaturresort Schindelbruch, Romantik Hotel Freiwerk, Gusto and 57 more
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Joseph Cross, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas327 mountains within 25 km
Forestyas1 forests and trees within 15 km
Birdyas6 birding sites within 25 km
Cascadyas1 waterfalls within 15 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Joseph Cross
Germany
- 72Viewyas Score
- 124 kmFarthest ridge
- 557Peaks in view
- 583 mAltitude
Poppenberg Observation Tower
Germany · 12 km
- 72Viewyas Score
- 122 kmFarthest ridge
- 549Peaks in view
- 608 mAltitude
Brocken
Germany · 36 km
- 77Viewyas Score
- 225 kmFarthest ridge
- 737Peaks in view
- 1,138 mAltitude
Kahle Klippe
Germany · 37 km
- 74Viewyas Score
- 161 kmFarthest ridge
- 494Peaks in view
- 1,025 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q315590) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Forestyas, Birdyas, Cavernyas, Cascadyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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