Dolmen route Exloo - Borger

This green route takes you through leafy forests and past impressive dolmens: historic pearls in the Drenthe landscape. You cycle through the greenery of Boswachterij Exloo, where coniferous and deciduous forests, open heathland and drifting sands alternate in the rolling landscape. The forest is littered with traces from a distant past. In addition to the dolmens, you will also find a markesteen, an old boundary stone, and a vegetated crater that was created during the Ice Age. Dolmen D30 is a small dolmen. Of the four covering stones, three remain. It is one of the 54 dolmens that have been preserved in the Netherlands. The dolmens are remains of the Trechterberker culture and were built about 5,000 years ago as a communal grave. ?? Hunebed D28 and Hunebed D29 are located together. They are approximately the same size: D28 has three capstones, D29 has two. Two spirals of copper wire were found during excavations in D28. They are the oldest metal jewelry ever found in the Netherlands. Borger is home to the National Hunebed Information Center, or the Hunebed Center Borger. You will learn everything about the ice ages, prehistory and the unique human structures that have remained from that time: the imposing and mysterious dolmens, made of gigantic boulders. In the Dolmen Center you will meet the dolmen builders from thousands of years ago and discover how they lived in this area. The dolmen triplets D23, D24 and D25 are located close to each other. Dolmen D23 has not stood the test of time very well: not much has been preserved of the original shape and size of the dolmen. He even has to get it from the surrounding dolmens to be recognized as such. There are also not many stones left of Hunebed D24. Hunebed D25 is a lot larger with four covering stones. All three are located on a dirt road. Numerous pots and shards have been found in dolmen D21, in several soil layers. The burial vault of the dolmen was 1.7 meters deep. When the bottom layer was full, a new layer of soil was applied. New dead bodies could then be placed on top.