"This indisputably ancient earth wall is two hours long, beginning in the Tiefenau area and running in a fairly straight line from east to west, especially from the heath houses, past the farmstead and forester's lodge at Gohrisch, and after passing over an insignificant (barely noticeable due to gradual rises and falls), it also coincidentally formed the newer border between the Kingdom of Saxony and the Royal Prussian Duchy of Saxony for some time, until it reaches the area of Fichtenberg and then ends, with no further traces visible until the Elbe, about a quarter of an hour away.

It consists of a ditch with embankments on both sides and is very clearly visible almost everywhere, especially when following its direction, although there are interruptions in several places, particularly where it crosses cultivated fields. Shortly before the Gohrisch outpost, it divides into two branches, one of which runs straight through the garden at the forester's lodge, while the other encloses that outlying estate and several associated fields and garden plots on the southern side in an almost crescent-shaped line and rejoins the straight section about a quarter of an hour away from the point of separation.

The ditch is 8–12 ells wide from one side to the other and 2–4, usually 3 ells deep, in which the embankments on both sides meet without any base area being noticeable, ...

With regard to names and legends, it should be noted that the name Teufelsgraben (Devil's Ditch) is generally used for this rampart and no other, and is even indicated on older special maps. It is well known that ramparts and ditches of unknown purpose and origin, which appear to have been built with superhuman strength, as well as particularly strange rocks and boulders, were attributed to the devil in the Middle Ages ...

Based on its purpose, it has been assumed to be a canal (or weapon trench) or a trench to prevent forest fires, or even a boundary wall; however, it would not have served the first two purposes, as will become apparent from the following.

As far as its construction as a canal is concerned, the local conditions do not seem to require one ...

As a trench to prevent forest fires, it is ... far too significant a structure; thousands of people undoubtedly had to work for months, if not longer, with an effort that would be considered extraordinary today, to complete it. Therefore, there is no choice but to assume that it was most likely a border wall that served to separate the districts of two nations ..."

One Saxon cubit = 0.56 m

Preusker identified this moat construction as a boundary marker of Slavic or, more likely, Germanic origin, but did not rule out the possibility of Roman origin (Sächsische Provinzialblätter 1827 No. 4).

Today, there is a tendency to regard this early historical structure as a boundary marker from the High Middle Ages (11th-13th century) demarcating the possessions of the Bishop of Naumburg.

Thanks to Preusker's descriptions, the course of the historic Teufelsgraben can still be traced today over a distance of approx. 10 km from Tiefenau to Fichtenberg.