Neandertal (valley) most of the limestone and dramatically changed the shape of the valley. It was during such a quarrying operation that the bones of the original Neanderthal man were found in a cave known as Kleine Feldhofer Grotte. Neither the cave nor the cliff in which the bones were located still exists. During the 19th century the valley was called "Neandershöhle" (Neander's Cave), and, after 1850, "Neanderthal". It was named after Joachim Neander, a 17th-century German pastor. "Neander" is the Greek translation of his family name "Neumann"; both names mean "new man". Neumann lived in nearby Düsseldorf and loved the valley
Germany Valley is characterized by Ordovician limestones at the culmination of the Wills Mountain anticline. The Valley is formed within the eastern and western limbs of this eroded anticline (fold), which are represented by North Fork Mountain and the River Knobs, respectively. Both North Fork Mountain and the River Knobs are classed as homoclinal ridges and Germany Valley itself as a homoclinal valley. Germany Valley is famously underlain by New Market limestone bedrock, a pale grey limestone of the St. Paul Group of Ordovician limestone which, where exposed at the surface, has a tendency to erode with deep vertical fissures. Cave development