Mont Sainte-Odile has terraces ideally located overlooking the Alsace plain, with an orientation towards the rising sun. They end abruptly, in the northeast, with a rocky peak whose vertical walls descend to more than 65 ft (20 m) in depth. Sixteen hundred years ago, a Roman fort stood at the end of this natural cape. Its construction is attributed to Emperor Maximian Hercules. The strategic interest of the location also attracted Saint Odile's parents, who built a castle there.