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Stevns Klint

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Stevns Klint, or the Cliffs of Stevns, is a white chalk cliff on the Danish island of Zealand, about 6 km southeast of Store Heddinge. The cliffs run 17 km along the coast and rise up to 40 meters high. It is famous for its clear record of the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the time when the dinosaurs disappeared. The cliff shows layers from the late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) and the early Paleogene (Danian), including a thin dark fiskeler layer rich in iridium that marks the boundary and supports the asteroid impact theory. Above the boundary you find older chalks with bryozoans deposited in shallower times.

Stevns Klint is a fossil treasure, with more than 830 species of animals found there, including ammonites, bryozoans, corals and sharks, as well as many microfossils. It also contains evidence that ammonites briefly survived into the Paleogene. The site includes the Stevns Fort, a Cold War fortress built in 1953; its 1.6 km of underground tunnels are now a museum. The old Højerup Church sits at the cliff top; in 1928 a landslide caused the chancel to collapse. A newer church stands inland about 300 meters away. Stevns Klint was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, together with the Wadden Sea.


This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 09:16 (CET).