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Located in the middle of Central Europe, at the northwestern part of the ‘Rheinish Slate Mountains’, the rolling Eifel highlands are a hilly land-scape with deep, glacially carved valleys cut into old Devonian sediments (360-415 million years old). Volcanoes dot the landscape, with 350 known eruption centers, and give the area its name – Vulkaneifel UNESCO Global Geopark. Two volcanic phases created Vulkaneifel. The first was active around 45 to 35 million years ago, the second phase around a million years ago that ended with the most recent eruption, the Ulmener Maar, 10,900 years ago. Around 350 eruptions have been recorded in the Vulkaneifel, of which around 270 were during the most recent phase. The area is the international type locality of maar volcanoes. In some craters, bogs and lakes have formed while others remain dry. Known as ‘maar’ craters, these bodies reveal a nearly uninterrupted stack of sediments dating back to 150,000 years ago that provides data for the reconstruction of past climate, vegetation and ecology. Since the 1980s research focusing on the varve bearing sediments of the waterfilled maars as well as the dry-maars made it possible to reconstruct an annual calendar for the last 23,000 years with seasonal resolution. Ongoing research in the maar sediments today allows a view back to some 130,000 years ago. Vulkaneifel is the most important climate archive for Middle Europe. Similarly, fossils found in 43 million years old sediments of Eckfeld Maar are of worldwide importance, since they contained an archetypal horse and the oldest known honey bee. The Vulkaneifel has attracted geoscientists for 200 years and many international research projects have been conducted here. The Earth beneath the Vulkaneifel is still in motion. In fact, the surface of the area still uplifts by one millimeter per year rate.