A view from the Hofer Saddle to the Alps It is worth taking a few more steps to enjoy the panorama of the Northern Limestone Alps located to the south, or to take a look west towards Koppl, behind it to Nockstein and Gaisberg or to Hochstaufen and Untersberg. View of the Untersberg The Northern Limestone Alps belong to the Eastern Alps and are made up of Mesozoic rocks. Our journey through time and space takes a tremendous leap back into the past, about 250 million years. There was only one continent, Pangaea, which was surrounded by water. Over millions of years, this primordial continent broke apart into individual plates. Bays and seas formed between these plates, one of which was the Tethys. The Tethys was located in the tropical region. For 200 million years, debris, sand, and gravel were deposited into this primordial ocean by rivers and streams. These accumulated in layers. Shells, corals, and snails were also deposited on the ocean floor. Massive sediment layers formed. Afterwards, these layers were shifted northward by continental drift. It was a viscous mass composed of different layers, which was further folded by pressure. Some sediments were re-melted in the earth's interior. The lighter sediments then "floated" upward, piling up to the point where they rose above the primordial sea. That was the birth of the Alps. This occurred about 50 million years ago, in the Tertiary (which is part of the Cenozoic, the most recent geological era, spanning from 65 million years ago to the present, divided into Tertiary [65 million to 2 million years ago] and Quaternary [2 million years ago to present]). The Tertiary is further divided into 5 sections: Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene.