Niangniang Mountain 娘娘山

About Niangniang Mountain

The mountain covers more than 60 square kilometres and its main peak reaches 1,563.8 metres. Its landform is granite, and what it is protected for is a well-preserved record of a detachment fault structure dated between about 3.0 and 2.5 billion years ago; thirty-eight minerals have been identified within the area. It was raised to national geopark status in August 2009. The mountain takes its name from three goddesses worshipped on it.

Its signature feature is the Stone Waterfall, where broad sheets of bare granite are streaked dark brown so that from a distance the rock reads like an ink-wash painting of falling water. Other named places include the Hundred-Foot Falls, the Eighteen Pools, Qinling Xueqiao, Yaochi, the Seven Star Pools, Changban Falls, Chessboard Rock and the Niangniang temple. The Eighteen Pools are protected as a national geological relic of the second grade, and Qinling Xueqiao was one of Lingbao's twenty old scenes. A geology museum on the site covers the rocks, science education and the area's gold-mining history.

What to look for

• The Stone Waterfall, sheets of exposed granite streaked dark brown in the shape of falling water
• The Hundred-Foot Falls, the mountain's main cascade
• The Eighteen Pools, protected as a national geological relic of the second grade
• The detachment fault structure preserved in the granite, dated between about 3.0 and 2.5 billion years ago
• The Xiaoqinling geology museum on the site, which also covers the area's gold-mining history

Location & getting there

Getting to Niangniang Mountain

Check weather, trail access and the last return service. A mountain or forest area is not one entrance, and a map’s central pin may be far from the trailhead.

• Search for 娘娘山 with 三门峡市 and 灵宝市.