UNESCO Stevns Klint

Where World History Is Written in Chalk

Stevns Klint is one of Denmark’s most impressive natural phenomena. The cliff, approximately 17 kilometers long, stretches along the Baltic Sea coast from Bøgeskov in the north to Rødvig in the south and rises up to 40 meters above sea level. The light-colored limestone layers tell a story that goes back millions of years, making the area one of the world’s most important geological sites.

The cliff was formed on the seafloor of a warm ocean more than 60 million years ago, where layer upon layer of limestone from microscopic organisms and corals was slowly deposited. Over the centuries, the limestone has been an important resource for the local area, and its extraction has left its mark on the landscape. The old limestone quarries at Boesdal and Holtug, among other places, bear witness to an industry that has been of great significance to Stevns’ development and economy.

What makes Stevns Klint truly unique is the thin layer of fish clay that runs through the cliff. The fish-rich sediment contains traces of the massive asteroid impact that struck Earth about 66 million years ago and led to the mass extinction of, among others, the dinosaurs. The layer marks the transition between the Cretaceous Period and the subsequent geological period and provides researchers with a unique opportunity to study one of the most pivotal events in Earth’s history.

That is precisely why Stevns Klint was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014. UNESCO recognized the cliff as a site of outstanding universal value because it contains some of the world’s best-preserved traces of the global catastrophe that changed life on Earth forever.

Today, Stevns Klint is both an important research site and one of Denmark’s most visited natural attractions. Here, geology, cultural history, and magnificent natural experiences come together in a landscape where the dramatic events of the past can still be read directly in the layers of the cliff.