Here is a panorama of a German open pit lignite coal mine southwest of Düsseldorf near Hambach.

These bucket wheel excavators are the largest digging machines in the world, 200 ft high by 400 ft long.
They take two years to build.

This mine is moving towards the left  across farmland, villages , autobahns and railway lines which will all be relocated as it travels.

The machines on the left are removing the overburden, and it travels miles around the pit on huge conveyer belts to the machines uphill on the right who are backfilling to the original land contours.
Trees, farm fields, roads and towns will be replanted. ...... you will never know this hole was here.

The black coal seam you see at the bottom is 1,000 feet below me, and another  double conveyer belt in it's own road as wide as an autobahn travels to the lignite power generating turbines at a huge  power plant 20 miles away.................... 17 % of Germany's power comes from local coal.

There are 13 machines at work  in this pit  !