Postcard Sivesschlüff, Luxembourg's Little Switzerland, rock cleft with inscriptions

Black-and-white postcard of the Sivesschlüff in Luxembourg's Little Switzerland, published by Verlag J.R. Waeger, photographer in Echternach, as number 053 in his series. The composition shows the narrow rock cleft with a child in a white shirt standing in the middle of the path, flanked by sandstone walls rising high on either side. On the right-hand wall a carved inscription with the year 1906 and a barely legible name is visible. The publisher's monogram JRW appears in the lower left, and the printed caption "Petite Suisse Luxembourgeoise - Sivesschlüff" runs along the bottom. The card is in good condition.

The Sivesschlüff, now spelt Siweschlëff or "seven clefts", is a rock labyrinth near Berdorf where sandstone towers slid down a slippery marl layer, forming seven narrow gorges, some only thirty centimetres wide and twenty metres deep. The 1906 carved into the rock face recalls a practice that continued in the Petite Suisse for decades: walkers and tourists cut their names and dates into the soft sandstone. These inscriptions, now largely protected as historical heritage, gave the card at the time of publication a double reading, as a photograph of the landscape and as a photograph of the traces left by visitors. The region has belonged to the UNESCO Global Geopark Mëllerdall since 2015. The spelling and divided-back layout place the card around 1906 to 1915.