The Kyffhäuser is a mountain located at the border of Thuringia. The mountain has significance in German traditional myth as the resting place of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, a charismatic leader who died in 1190 while on a crusade.Located in the middle of the Kyffhäuser Mountains, there are ruins still to be seen for visitors of the 11th century residence Kyffhausen, one of the largest and strongest medieval fortress constructions in Germany. Especially impressive however is the imposing Kyffhäuser Memorial (1890-1896) with its equestrian statue of Emperor Wilhelm the First an the statue of Barbarossa hewed out of stone. According to legend, Barbarossa is not in fact dead, but sleeps in a hidden chamber underneath the Kyffhäuser mountain, sitting at a stone table. As in the similar legend of King Arthur, Barbarossa supposedly awaits his country’s hour of greatest need, when he will emerge once again from under the mountain.