Reichenbach Falls

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Reichenbach Falls

The Reichenbach Falls (Reichenbachfall) near Meiringen, Switzerland, have a total drop of 250 m (820 ft). At 90 m (295.2 ft) the Upper Reichenbach Falls is one of the highest cataracts in the Alps. The falls are made accessible by the Reichenbachfall-Bahn funicular railway.

1 Appearance in Sherlock Holmes stories
2 External links
3 Wikisource links
4 Images

[edit] Appearance in Sherlock Holmes stories

Holmes and Moriarty fighting over the Reichenbach Falls. Art by Sidney Paget.

The town and the falls are known world-wide as the setting for an event which never actually happened: Reichenbach Falls are the location where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's hero, Sherlock Holmes, apparently dies at the end of "The Adventure of the Final Problem" locked in mortal combat with his arch nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

Out of many waterfalls in the Bernese Oberland, the Reichenbach Falls seem to have made the greatest impression on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

So impressed was Conan Doyle that he decided to let his hero die there. A memorial plate at the funicular station commemorates Holmes, and there is a Sherlock Holmes museum in the nearby town of Meiringen. The actual ledge from which Moriarty and Holmes apparently fall is on the other side of the falls; it is accessible by climbing the path to the top of the falls, crossing the bridge and following the trail down the hill. The ledge is marked by a plaque written in English, German and French; the English inscription reads: "At this fearful place, Sherlock Holmes vanquished Professor Moriarty, on 4 May 1891."