This week, a section of the sandstone outcrop visible at Suur Taevaskoda collapsed. The last known incident took place on the left-hand side of the outcrop eight years ago.

"Suur Taevaskoda is located on the river's cut bank, and such collapses have been occurring there every so often for thousands of years. The Ahja River erodes this cut bank, and from time to time smaller and larger pieces of sandstone fall down from it. If we look at the Taevaskoja outcrop, there are several cave-like structures there, and these have formed through the action of groundwater, where groundwater flows out along the surface of slightly more clay-rich layers and has hollowed out caves there," said Alar Rosentau from the University of Tartu's Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences.

Along with the collapsed rock layer, the names carved into it over the decades have also disappeared.

It is hoped that visitors' awareness of nature has changed enough that people will not spoil the several-hundred-million-year-old attraction by carving their names into it.

"All of that history has passed into the past, and now there is a clean, beautiful wall, colorful, with the different sandstone layers vividly visible, the shades ranging from yellow to bluish-violet. That color palette is simply wonderful," said Taevaskoja village elder Ahti Bleive.

The Taevaskoda outcrops on the banks of the ancient valley of the Ahja River are one of the most frequently visited sites in southern Estonia.

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