Arko'na

Arko'na, the NE. promontory of the island of Rügen, in the Baltic. Its chalk-cliffs rise to a height of 177 feet, topped with a lighthouse, built in 1827, itself 78 feet high, from which the Danish island of Möen, 33 miles NW., can be seen. Here stood the famous fortification (Slav. Urkan) so long impregnable, and the temple of the Wend deity Swantewit, the most sacred sanctuary of the Slavs of Northern Germany. It was destroyed, after a long struggle, by King Waldemar I. of Denmark in 1168. The remains of the burg-ring or wall still stand on the land side of the promontory.