The Loreley is a 132-meter-high slate cliff near Sankt Goarshausen in Rhineland-Palatinate, situated at the deepest and narrowest point of the Middle Rhine. It rises steeply to 193.14 meters above sea level on the right bank of the Rhine at river kilometer 555, offering a sweeping view of the river bend near Sankt Goarshausen and Katz Castle. For hikers and tourists, the Loreley is the epitome of Rhine Romanticism and a popular destination. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley is also known as the "Valley of the Loreley." The romanticized image of the rock, and thus its current tourist significance, was largely due to the fairy tale "Lore Lay," which Clemens Brentano recounted in ballad form in his 1801 novel "Godwi." The protagonist is a beautiful enchantress or mermaid who sits atop the rock and brings ruin to men. Brentano's invention was immediately widely received, so much so that even before the mid-19th century it was considered a folktale, a "fairy tale from ancient times," as Heinrich Heine's poem "Die Lore-Ley" describes it. This pseudo-legend is closely linked to mythologemes already known from Greek mythology, such as that of the nymph Echo, who is transformed into a rock, that of the magic gaze that renders one defenseless, or that of the sirens' song, which is fatal to sailors.