Hochdahl station

Kleine Feldhofer Grotte was a karstic limestone cave and a paleoanthropologic site in the Neander Valley in western Germany. In August 1856, the Neanderthal type specimen was unearthed from the cave. Miners uncovered a skull cap and a number of skeletal bones to be labeled Neanderthal. The bones belong to at least three distinct individuals. The cave was situated in a limestone gorge with the interior dimensions of 3 m (9.8 ft) in width by 5 m (16 ft) in length by 3 m (9.8 ft) in height, and a 1 m (3.3 ft) opening 20 m (66 ft) above the valley floor in the south wall which was 50 m (160 ft) high. The cave got its name from the nearby large farm of the Feldhof.The cave was destroyed during the 19th century as a result of industrial-scale limestone quarrying which widened the gorge. The location of the cave was soon forgotten and by 1900, unknown. In 1997 a successful search for the site of the cave and its deposits yielded 24 fragments of human bone, one of which, identified as NN 13, fit exactly onto the left lateral femoral condyle of the Neanderthal 1 fossil. The 2000 excavation resulted in the recovery of thousands of artifacts. The mitochondrial DNA of two bone samples were fully sequenced, and completed in 2009.

The Neandertal (, also US: , German: [neˈʔandɐtaːl]; sometimes called "the Neander Valley" in English) is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 12 km (7.5 mi) east of Düsseldorf, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia. The valley lies within the limits of the towns of Erkrath and Mettmann. In August, 1856, the area became famous for the discovery of Neanderthal 1, one of the first specimens of Homo neanderthalensis to be found. The Neandertal was originally a limestone canyon widely known for its rugged scenery, waterfalls and caves. However, industrial quarrying during the 19th and 20th centuries removed most of the limestone and dramatically changed the shape of the valley. It was during such a quarrying operation that the bones of the original Neanderthal man were found in a cave known as Kleine Feldhofer Grotte. Neither the cave nor the cliff in which the bones were located still exist. During the 19th century, the valley was called Neanderhöhle (Neander's Cave) and, after 1850, Neanderthal. It was named after Joachim Neander, a 17th-century German pastor. Neander is the Graeco-Roman translation of his family name Neumann; both names mean "new man". Neumann lived in nearby Düsseldorf and loved the valley for giving him the inspiration for his compositions. Former names of the gorge were Das Gestein (The Boulders) and Das Hundsklipp (Cliff of dogs, perhaps in the sense of "Cliff of Beasts"). In 1901, an orthographic reform in Germany changed the spelling of Thal (valley) to Tal. Scientific names, such as Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis for Neanderthal remained unchanged, because the laws of taxonomy retain the original spelling at the time of naming. However, Neanderthal station never changed its name to conform with the new German orthography and the modern Neanderthal Museum retains the original spelling.

The Neanderthal Museum is a museum in Mettmann, Germany. Located at the site of the first Neanderthal man discovery in the Neandertal, it features an exhibit centered on human evolution. The museum was constructed in 1996 to a design by the architects Zamp Kelp, Julius Krauss and Arno Brandlhuber and draws about 170,000 visitors per year. The museum also includes an archaeological park on the original discovery site, a Stone Age workshop, as well as an art trail named "human traces". All signs in the museum as well as the audio guide offered by the museum are available in German and English.

Neanderthal station is a Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn station in the town of Mettmann in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was opened on 15 September 1879. It is located in the Neandertal (Neander Valley), which prior to the German spelling reform of 1901 was spelled as Neanderthal. The reason why the outdated spelling of the station was not updated is not clear. In German, even the spelling of the Neanderthal man (whose fossils were first found in the area) has been updated to Neandertaler from the outdated Neanderthaler. The nearby Neanderthal Museum and the municipality of Mettmann have adopted the policy all names referring to the prehistoric humans have the "h", so they in fact use the spelling Neanderthaler for the species, which is not done anywhere else anymore in German-speaking areas, but even they don't spell the valley in the outdated way anymore (except seemingly in the name of the museum, which is in fact English, not German). The municipality claims that the German rail authority didn't dare to change the spelling because of the proximity of the museum.

Hochdahl-Millrath station is a through station in the district of Millrath of the town of Erkrath in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The station was opened in 1968 or 1969 on the section of the Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway from Erkrath to Wuppertal-Vohwinkel that was opened by the Düsseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company on 10 April 1841. It has two platform tracks and it is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.The station is served by Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines S 8 between Mönchengladbach and Wuppertal-Oberbarmen or Hagen every 20 minutes and several S 68 services between Wuppertal-Vohwinkel and Langenfeld in the peak hour.It is also served by two bus routes operated by Rheinbahn: O5 (every 20 minutes) and O6 (20-60).

Erkrath (German pronunciation: [ˈɛɐ̯kʁaːt] (listen)) is a town in the district of Mettmann, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Erkrath Nord station is a Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn station in the town of Erkrath in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was opened between 1905/14 on the last section of the Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund Süd railway from Mettmann station (now Mettmann Stadtwald station) to the Rhenish Railway Company's Düsseldorf station, opened on 15 September 1879.The station is served by Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn line S 28 at 20-minute intervals

Mettmann (German: [ˈmɛtˌman] (listen)) is a town in the northern part of the Bergisches Land, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Mettmann, Germany's most densely populated rural district. The town lies east of Düsseldorf and west of Wuppertal.

Erkrath station is a through station in the town of Erkrath in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has two platform tracks and it is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.

Unterbach was a local borough of Erkrath, Germany, until 1975, when it became an urban borough of Düsseldorf in a local reorganisation. A portion of the pre-1975 Unterbach remains as the borough of Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus. The eastern end of the borough of Düsseldorf-Vennhausen was attached to Unterbach during the reorganisation since it was already culturally associated with Unterbach.

Mettmann Zentrum ("Mettmann centre") station is a Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn station in the town of Mettmann in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was opened in 1953 on the last section of the Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund Süd railway from Mettmann station (now Mettmann Stadtwald station) to the Rhenish Railway Company's Düsseldorf station. It was opened in 1953 as Mettmann West station and given its current name on 26 September 1999.The station is served by Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn line S 28 at 20-minute intervals. The station is served by 11 bus routes, SB68 (Dornap – Wieden – Wuppertal, every 60 minutes), O10 (Mettmann Süd – Stadtwald + Kaldenberg – Metzkausen, every 60 minutes), O11 (Metzkausen – Hasselbeckstr + Friedhof Lindenheide, every 60 minutes), O13 (Stadtwald + Danziger Str – Jubiläumsplatz, every 20 minutes), 738 (Gerresheim Krankenhaus – Dreherstr – Düsseldorf Hbf, every 20–60 minutes), 741 (Neanderthal – Hochdahl – Hilden – Südfriedhof, every 20–60 minutes), 742 (Gruiten – Haan – Thienhausen, every 20–60 minutes), 743 (Neanderthal – Erkrath, every 60 minutes), 745 (Dornap – Wieden – Vohwinkel, every 60 minutes), 745 (Dornap – Wieden – Wuppertal, every 60 minutes), 746 (Wülfrath – Tönisheide – Velbert, every 20 minutes) and 749 (Metzkausen – Ratingen – Kaiserswerth, every 60 minutes). All are operated by Rheinbahn or in conjunction with Kreisverkehrsgesellschaft Mettmann (741, 742, 743, 746 and 749).

Hilden is a town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is situated in the District of Mettmann, 10 km (6.21 mi) west of Solingen and 15 km (9.32 mi) east of Düsseldorf on the right side of the Rhine. It is a middle sized industrial town with a forest and numerous attractions. The Mayor is Claus Pommer, who took office in 2020.