Appenzell Moto Binn (the Mineral Village) - Ernen 2023

Описание: Location: Riding downhill from Binn to Ernen
Direction: Binn (VS) - Ernen (VS)
Degree of difficulty: Easy, sometimes bumpy, nothing to worry about, attention to cyclists and hikers. Narrow road, relaxed riding, 30 km/h to 80 km/h maximum top speed.
View: The Binntal - also Binnatal - is a valley in the southern part of the district of Goms in the Swiss canton of Valais. The Binntal is a side valley of the Rhone Valley. The valley is almost congruent with the area of the municipality of Binn, the main settlement is Schmidighischere. The economy is shaped by tourism and agriculture. A large part of the valley is included in the federal inventory of landscapes and natural monuments in Switzerland. In 2005, around 200 people lived in the valley in different hamlets.
Especially interesting:The Binntal is a well-known location for minerals and their varieties and has its own mineral exchange.. It is one of the ten most famous mineral sites and type localities in the world and has been known since the 18th century. So far, a total of 165 minerals and 14 varieties have been found there (as of 2019). Lengenbach is also considered a type locality for 44 minerals, such as Baumhauerit, Gabrielite, named after the well-known Swiss mineral photographer and expert on Lengenbach minerals Walter Gabriel (* 1943), the minerals hatchit and quadratite previously only found in Lengenbach, and Lengenbachite, which is named after its type locality and has also only been found there so far. So far, over 330 minerals and varieties, of which 288 are independent mineral species and 61 are type locality minerals, have been discovered in the entire Binn Valley (as of 2019). There are guided excursions into the mountains to find minerals. Two professional emitters (crystal seekers) are still able to make a living from their work. The largest quartz crystal found in the Binntal was found on the Turbhorn and is 75 cm in size. Source Wikipedia