Due to its favorable natural conditions and geographical location, the Rhineland has been an intensively used and shaped settlement and economic area for many thousands of years. Evidence of its long and varied history can be found at every turn. In Roman times, the Agrippa Road connected the Rhineland with southern France and the western Mediterranean and brought regions, people, markets and cultures together. It was of extraordinary political, strategic and economic importance until late antiquity. To this day, it is still a pilgrimage route to Trier or Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

In ancient times, the Agrippa Road left Roman Cologne through the south-western city gate on Clemens/Bobstraße. Today, this location has been transformed in modern times and is no longer recognizable in the streetscape. Today's Luxemburger Straße traces the course of the ancient road all the more clearly and precisely up to the edge of the recultivated open-cast lignite mine in Hürth. Behind this, the Agrippastrasse runs dead straight through Erftstadt-Liblar and the Börden landscape across the Erft towards Zülpich and the northern Eifel. In Zülpich, it joins the Roman roads from Bonn and Neuss. At the height of Kall-Keldenich/Dottel, the "Dotteler Sattel", the Roman road offers a view back to Zülpich for more than 15 kilometers in good weather. Once the Königsfeld valley is behind it, the Agrippa road follows two different routes in the direction of Nettersheim-"Görresburg" or Marmagen and Blankenheim-Blankenheimerdorf not far from Dahlem to the North Rhine-Westphalian border with Rhineland-Palatinate.

Take your time and experience the 118 km between Cologne and Dahlem in a total of 4 daily stages. This gives you enough time to explore the archaeological monuments along the route and to visit the sights in the surrounding area.

Suggested stages:

• Stage 1: Cologne-Erftstadt-Liblar
• Stage 2: Erftstadt-Liblar-Zülpich
• Stage 3: Zülpich-Mechernich-Kall/Nettersheim
• Stage 4: Nettersheim-Blankenheim-Dahlem