Hallig

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North Frisian Islands with Halligen (darker green)

A Hallig (plural Halligen) is one of the ten small German islands without protective dikes in the North Frisian Islands on Schleswig-Holstein’s Wadden Sea-North Sea coast in the district of Nordfriesland.

The name comes from a Celtic word hal, meaning “salt”, a reference to the low-lying land in the region which is often flooded over with saltwater by the tides. Owing to the commoner floodings in the Middle Ages, themselves the result of poorer coastal protection at that time, there were once more Halligen than there are today. A look at the maps on this page will demonstrate that this part of the North Sea coast is very much at the sea's mercy.

The Halligen have areas ranging from 7 to 956 ha, and are often former parts of the mainland, separated therefrom by storm tide erosion. Some are also parts of once much bigger islands sundered by the same forces. Sometimes, owing to sediment deposition, islands have actually grown together to form larger ones. The Hallig Langeneß (or Langeness) includes a former island by that same name, and two others that were called Nordmarsch and Butwehl.

Dwellings and commercial buildings are built upon metre-high man-made hills, called Warften in German, to guard against storm tides. Some Halligen also have overflow dikes.

Not very many people live on the Halligen. Their livelihoods are mainly based on tourism, coastal protection, and agriculture. This last activity mainly involves cattle raising in the fertile, often flooded, salt meadows.

The Halligen are to be found in the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer National Park. The commercially developed Halligen Nordstrandischmoor, Gröde, Oland, Langeneß, and Hooge are surrounded by the protected area, but not an integral part of it. The smaller Halligen Habel, Südfall, Süderoog, and Norderoog as well as the Hamburger Hallig are parts of the national park. Walks on the tidal flats and informational meetings are offered by tourist boards and the park administration.

The island of Mandø in the Danish part of the archipelago is also technically a Hallig, although it is far away from the other ten, which are quite near each other. Mandø can be reached from the mainland over the mudflats at low tide, when a tidal pathway (ebbevej in Danish, meaning "ebb-way") is above water.

[edit] List of Halligen

Langeneß – 956 ha, 16 Warften, about 110 inhabitants. Narrow gauge railway connection to Oland (over causeway).
Mandø (Denmark) – 763 ha, ? Warften, 60 inhabitants. Joined by path to mainland at low tide.
Hooge – 574 ha, 10 Warften, about 120 inhabitants.
Gröde – 277 ha, 2 Warften, 17 inhabitants.
Nordstrandischmoor; 175 ha, 4 Warften, 18 inhabitants. One-room schoolhouse. Narrow gauge railway connection to mainland.
Oland – 96 ha, 1 Warft, about 30 inhabitants. Narrow gauge railway connection to mainland and Langeneß.
Süderoog – 60 ha, 1 Warft, 2 inhabitants.
Südfall – 50 ha, 1 Warft, bird sanctuary.
Hamburger Hallig – 50 ha, 2 Warften, uninhabited, inn occupied in summer, joined to the mainland by a 4 km-long causeway and a polder.
Norderoog – 9 ha, no Warften, bird sanctuary tended year-round.
Habel – 3,6 ha, 1 Warft, uninhabited, bird sanctuary occupied in summer.