Castle hill of Szanda

Smaller patches of andesite can be found on its east - south-east edge, this is where one of the most beautiful sights of the area rises – the Szanda Hill with fortress-ruins on its top -, and as well, some columnar andesite can be viewed. It also represents the largest stone quarry of the area.

The subregion is characterized by large scale erosion, which partly results from the terrain conditions.There are columnar jointing varieties of the Cserhát basaltic andesites. The andesite columns at Szanda fill up an old vent, which continues in vein-rock through several kilometers to northwest. The real, extremely rare curiosity is not far from Szanda: it is on Nagy-hegy near Ber, hiding in the shade of trees.

There are castles built on volcanic highs at Salgo, Somoskő, Szanda and Bujak. We can found there typical macroscopic appearance, columnar jointing varieties, slim, slant and soldierly columns of the Cserhát pyroxene andesites (basaltic andesites), which fill up a defunct vent. This appearance is very rare for andesite rocks. The andesite columns at Szanda fill up an old vent, which continues in vein-rock through several kilometers to northwest. The real, extremely rare curiosity is on Nagy-hegy near Ber, hiding in the shade of trees. The geological resources of the site accounts to 22 million tons of andesite, which – considering their present production capacity – ensures steady operating for some more 20 years in the future.