There is a medieval city in Germany built in a meteorite crater. Its walls hide 72,000 tons of diamonds

Nördlingen, a medieval German town in Swabia, was built inside the Nördlinger Ries meteorite crater.

Its city wall traces almost exactly the crater’s edge, linking the urban layout to the ancient impact.

Local buildings were made with suevite, a rock formed by the collision and containing millions of tiny diamonds.

The city’s geology explains both its distinctive architecture and its unusual place in urban history.