The 125-meter-high slate rock (193.14m above sea level) is geologically about 4 million years old and has been the center of Rhine romanticism since the 19th century. The Rhine is only 175 meters wide here. Correspondingly, the current is quite strong. An additional danger in the past were the rock reefs in the water, which placed ships in great peril. Many ships sank, and many people lost their lives. The word Loreley comes from the words "Ley"=rock and "Loren"=to listen. This was probably derived from the rushing of the rapids and the hum of the multiple echoes in the narrow section of the valley.

The legend of Loreley is probably known to everyone, but less so its origin. The female figure Loreley was brought to life in 1800 in Clemens Brentano's ballad "At Bacharach on the Rhine." Here, as a beautiful sorceress, she leads all men to their doom and throws herself into the Rhine from the rock on her way to exile. In 1824, Heinrich Heine published his "Loreley" poem, which corresponds in content to today's legend. Loreley is depicted as a beautiful woman sitting at the cliff's edge, combing her golden hair, and enchanting the sailors to their deaths. In 1838, Friedrich Silcher then set Heine's poem to music, solidifying the world-famous legend with his Loreley song.