An inexplicable stone staircase leading nowhere stands behind the car park at the Signal de Botrange. It was built in 1923 on the highest spot in Belgium, in the middle of the cold and bleak Hautes Fagnes moors.
The land at this point is 694 metres above sea level, but the stone steps add a further six metres, bringing the height to a neat 700 metres.
Eleven years later, a stone observation tower was built nearby, 18 metres above the ground, so the little stone staircase has no real purpose any more. But people still like to climb to the top.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
