The Cretaceous sandstone formations soar above the so-called "levels" of their surrounding area, the former level of the River Elbe, and represent the remains of an old peneplain. In the course of the Late Tertiary, uplifting of the Ore Mountains and sideways pressure from the Lusatian Highlands shattered the sandstone plate along lines that intersected like a grid and this, combined with the simultaneously increasing stream velocity of the Elbe and regressive erosion in its side valleys, offered new lines of attack and new routes for the destructive power of water. Initially the larger table hills (Lilienstein), or those already deeply fissured like Zirkelstein, Kaiserkrone or already forested (Kohlbornstein), remained, but these too broke up later as a result of erosive destruction into long ridges (Schrammsteine) or even into individual rock pinnacles (Torwächter). Morphologically harder sections of strata, that resisted karstification longer and more successfully, generally form the uppermost layers. The collapse of rock structures is usually therefore a result of erosion from below or from the flanks.
