Ordinskaya cave. Ordinskaya cave - Perm region, Russia

Cave divers from all over Russia and foreign countries tend to the southwestern outskirts of the village of Orda in the Perm Territory to comprehend the secrets of the longest flooded gypsum cave - Ordinskaya.

The entrance to the dungeon is located on the slope of the plateau-shaped Kazakovskaya Mountain, towering on the banks of the Kungur River. The slopes and the flat top are covered with karst funnels, in one of them, which reached a circumference of 15 m, an arch was formed over 2 m high and almost 5 m wide, leading inland. The length of the Orda cave is almost five kilometers, of which the dry part is only 300 m, the rest of the length of the underground labyrinths - about 4600 m of the examined passages - is filled with water. The total depth of the cave is 43–21 m to the level of cave lakes and another 22 m of flooded cavities.

History of the discovery and exploration of the Orda cave

About the existence of the cave local population knew for a long time. Old-timers share their memories that they often observed steam from underground and heard the sound of water. Scientists first started talking about the Kazakovskaya Cave (as it was originally called by the name of the mountain) in 1969 - Professor G. Maksimovich included it in the list of caves in the Perm Territory.

Serious research, organized by Perm speleologists I. Lavrov and A. Samovolnikov, began in the 90s of the last century: by 1994, maps of 300 m of the dry part of the cave were compiled, passages were studied and grottoes were examined.

First dive in underground lake was made by V. Komarov, a Ryazan speleologist-scuba diver, who discovered huge cavities filled with clear blue water and branching into two galleries. The length of the branches turned out to be impressive, it became clear that they could not be passed without powerful equipment. Komarov managed to explore 30 m of the right gallery and 70 m of the left one, the beginning of the study of the cave was laid.

By the end of the 90s, it was possible to go through almost 3 km of underwater passages, and it seemed that the cave had already revealed all its secrets. But since 2002, a new surge of interest in the Orda cave has led to the outskirts of the Orda many teams of cave divers from different cities Russia, who discovered hitherto unknown branches and passages. They were given names from the names of the cities from which the cave divers came.

Systematic research and organization of dives, as well as the protection of a unique natural site and its surrounding territories, is carried out by the dive center, through whose efforts the first diving base in the country was built.

To date, it is impossible to say with complete certainty that all the flooded cavities of the Orda cave have been explored. It is likely that new underwater galleries are waiting for their discoverers and will present more than one surprise.

Diving trip in the Orda cave

The dry part of the Ordinskaya cave consists of corridors and several grottoes with underground lakes, which actually serve as gates to flooded labyrinths.

Immediately after the entrance, a small corridor leads to a spacious Crystal Grotto, almost 30 m long with 8 m vaults, in the far corner of which the Ice Lake shines. To the left of the entrance there is a passage leading to the grotto of the Ice Palace with no less impressive dimensions - about 50 m long and 7 m high. At the northeastern wall, Lake Main was formed. The floor of the grotto is gradually covered with fragments of rock that have fallen from the vaults, in the far corner there are two narrow openings leading to the Warm Lake and the last dry cavity of the cave - Maksimovich's grotto.

Diving in the Ordinskaya cave usually begins in Lake Glavnoye, located at the northeastern wall of the grotto Ice Palace. At a depth of three meters there is an entrance to a narrow vertical well, which branches into two galleries - the Left and the Main.

The left passage descends into the lower cavities of the cave, called the Basement, along which they go to the Canyon and Maisky passage.

Along the Main Gallery, spacious and wide, they travel in the direction of the Dry Hall - a domed cavity with high 7-meter vaults. Here divers rest before heading through the main labyrinths of the Orda cave - Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Krasnoyarsk or through Big hall to the Moscow move and further to the Big Ring.

The main part of the underwater route winds among the snow-white gypsum rocks. The water temperature in the depths of the cave is 6 degrees Celsius all year round, the transparency is ideal, only in the cavities of the Cellar there are areas with a silty bottom.

Attractions nearby

The Kungur Ice Cave is located in a rocky cliff above the Sylva River near the village of Filippovka on the outskirts of Kungur, 30 km from the Orda Cave.

First tourist excursions it was held in the middle 19th century. Currently, the Kungur cave is visited annually by over 80 thousand people, for whom the tourist town "Stalagmit" was built nearby with a hotel, parking lot, and a restaurant. The beauty of the ice formations in the dungeon is simply amazing - the crystals form bizarre shapes and silhouettes, turning the underground space into a real ice fairy tale.

Belogorsk Monastery, or Belogorsky St. Nicholas Missionary Male Monastery arose in 1893 in honor of saving the life of the heir to the royal throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich. A year later, the construction of the wooden St. Nicholas Church was completed on White Mountain, and a year later the construction of the upper (summer) Iberian Church began. In parallel, the construction of the fraternal and rectory buildings was carried out, a school for orphans was opened. Since 1897, the missionary brotherhood has acquired the status of the Belogorsk Monastery.

Over the entire period of its existence, the monastery was repeatedly destroyed, the property of the temples was plundered or destroyed by the Bolsheviks. The buildings of the monastery housed both a home for the disabled and a rehabilitation center for the wounded during World War II.

At the end of the 90s of the last century, the revival of the Belogorsk monastery took place, the restoration of religious buildings, the resumption of worship. Every year, thousands of pilgrims arrive in the village of Belaya Gora to bathe in the holy spring-font "Search for the Lost", located on the northern slope of the White Mountain.

Where to stay

Near the Ordinskaya cave, accommodation is offered at the base in cozy wooden houses or in separate rooms of the administrative building.

In the village of Orda there is a hotel with a price offer from 400 to 1400 rubles.

How to get to the Orda cave

Russia, Perm region, Ordinsky municipal district, the village of Orda

Coordinates (G): 57°10′55″ s. sh. 56°53′17″ E d.

They get to Perm by air or by train, then there are several options:

• by prior arrangement, the arrivals are picked up by a diving base car - a gazelle or a passenger car;
• by own transport from Perm along the Perm-Ekaterinburg highway, having covered 130 km to Orda;
• by train from Perm to railway station Kungur, the ticket price is about 280 rubles, then they order a 30-kilometer transfer to the base. From the bus station in Kungur runs scheduled bus to the Horde, the fare is 70 rubles.

The price of tickets to Perm from Moscow by train is 2500-2700 rubles, by plane - 3200-8600 rubles.

From Yekaterinburg, the length of the path to the Orda is 280 km along the federal highway.

Ordinskaya is a cave on the southwestern outskirts of the village of Orda in the Perm Territory, on the left bank of the Kungur River. It is embedded in gypsum and anhydrite of Permian age. Consists of "dry" and underwater parts. The length of the dry part is 300 meters, underwater - 4600 meters. To date Orda cave is the longest flooded cave in Russia. In addition, part of the cave is the longest siphon in the CIS - 935 meters.

The cave is ranked 21st among the longest gypsum caves in the world

About the existence of a cave on Kazakovskaya Gora locals knew for a long time. The first mention of it in the literature appeared in 1969. In the popular Soviet periodical scientific collection "Caves" (No. 7/8), a well-known scientist professor of Perm state university G. A. Maksimovich published the article “Caves of gypsum karst”, where among the gypsum caves of the Perm Territory Kazakovskaya cave is also listed. G. A. Maksimovich learned about the cave, most likely, from local residents, it was not studied by specialists. This cave is located on the same slope as Ordinskaya, but 300 meters upstream of the Kungur River.

This cave is sometimes called Malaya Ordinskaya. Here is what a resident of the village of Orda, Pavel Anatolyevich Ermakov, says - “It happened on one of the winter days of 1972, when I was skiing from Kazakovskaya Mountain. Unexpectedly for all of us, a noise was heard, and we felt the shaking of the earth. After that, a large column of steam rose. We decided to approach, but due to poor visibility we could not approach this place. And we came up and went down later, only in the summer. Three grottoes passed with torches and lanterns. There was a very low temperature. We spoke in whispers so that the boulders would not fall on us, would not block our way back. We saw two lakes in which there was a very clean, transparent cold water. We didn't go down after that." Exploration of the cave began in the early 1990s. In 1992, Andrey Samovolnikov, a Permian speleologist, learned about the existence of the cave and became the initiator of its detailed study. In 1993-1994, the first 300 m of passages and grottoes of the dry part of the cave were mapped. The research was carried out under the guidance of Andrey Samovolnikov and Igor Lavrov, Perm speleologists, with the participation of their Perm, Kungur and Moscow colleagues. The volumes of the cavities of the cave amazed the researchers: the sizes of the grottoes were comparable to the size large halls Kungur ice cave.

Deep clear lakes, high plaster vaults, bizarre snow and ice decoration of the halls in winter time- all this only emphasized the similarity of the two caves. In March 1994, at the invitation of Igor Lavrov, a speleologist-scuba diver from Ryazan, Viktor Komarov, came to Perm to dive into the final siphon of the Parallelnaya cave (near the town of Gubakha). The underwater passage turned out to be too narrow, the discovery did not take place, and it was decided, since the air in the cylinders remained, to check the lakes in the Orda cave. The lake in the Ice Palace grotto, unexpectedly for the researchers, turned out to be frozen. Three young speleologists, who had come with Komarov, went to look for an ice drill. Near the cave, on the pond, the fishermen were engaged in ice fishing. Seeing that the guys came out of the cave, and having learned that they were going to “fish in the cave”, the fishermen became very interested and even offered several ice screws to choose from. The ice in the lake was about half a meter thick, and the lane was made for a long time. Viktor Komarov recalls: “The size of the lane allowed us to pass with only one 7-liter cylinder on its side. For an exploration dive, this was quite enough. Diving from the surface was provided by Igor Lavrov. He gave out a steel wire (running end) from the coil. Several stones and boulders were wedged in the underwater passage going down. They did not hold firm, and they managed to be thrown down. After clearing the passage, I went under the ceiling of a wide gallery. It continued to the right and left of me. First I decided to scout the right continuation. After walking about 30 meters along it, I realized that one balloon apparatus is clearly not enough here.

A powerful halogen flashlight made it possible to assess the situation well. Coming out of the siphon, I decided to make another dive into the left extension, but with two balloon apparatus. The lane was widened, and Komarov made another dive into the left gallery. However, the running end got stuck in the crack and the submariner had to quickly return. In this direction, 70 m were covered. A total of 100 m was explored. The first step in the study of the siphons of the Ordinskaya cave was made in July 1996, a cave diver from Krasnoyarsk Petr Minenkov explored the next 250 m of underwater passages. Behind the first siphon, 75 m long, he discovered a large dry grotto, which later became known as the Dry Hall, 50 m in diameter and up to 10 m high. Since that time, the news of an unusually large underwater cave in the Urals began to spread rapidly. In December 1997, the first All-Russian speleological expedition started. Its participants came to the Horde - teams from Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Moscow. Among the 15 divers, the most experienced were Petr Minenkov and Konstantin Kozhemyakin from Krasnoyarsk and Igor Galayda and Roman Prokhorov from Moscow. Yuri Bazilevsky (Chelyabinsk) was the coordinator and initiator of the expedition, and Igor Lavrov (Kungur) was the supervisor. In 1998, Andrey Shumeiko wrote about this expedition: “How diverse the equipment was - from everything American to the Soviet-Krasnoyarsk - the composition of the expedition was just as colorful. Among the 15 working divers, 6 dived in the caves for the first time, the difference in experience fluctuated very much - from "nowhere cooler" to "almost none". Yes, and among themselves all were little known, maybe with rare exceptions. All the difficulties, both technical and psychological (by the way, there was a psychologist in the Moscow team, but he was more nervous than reassuring), passed us on Ordinskaya. Everything was very coordinated, calm, friendly, everyone got to know each other and, probably, “strengthened the ties between the speleologists of Russia”. During the expedition, the length of the underwater part of the cave increased by 950 m and amounted to 1250 m.

It was a record for Russia and the CIS! Another record was set - the longest siphon in Russia, 500 m long, was passed. In July 1998, the second All-Russian cave diving expedition took place. And the Russian record was set again! Evgeny Voydakov climbed 970 m along one of the passages. The previous achievement was increased by 330 m. As a result of the expedition, 1980 m of underwater passages were covered. This is how Evgeny Voydakov, the author of the record, described his dive in the Octopus magazine (1999): “I transfer the cylinders to the cave to the lake and collect equipment there. The total weight with which I go under water exceeds one hundred kilograms. This is the "base" weight. It includes two single-cylinder scuba tanks of 15 liters each, a buoyancy compensator, a wetsuit, a weight belt, fins, flashlights and a bunch of small things. Further, more cylinders, reels with a running gear and towing vehicles are added. The figure of 300-400 kilograms for a save diver is not the limit. The usual check on land, in water, under water - and we are left alone with the cave. Each speleologist establishes his own relationship with the underground element, very personal, intimate ... Only two hours under water, and how the perception of the world changes! Feelings are aggravated, love for everything overwhelms the soul, I want to sing and fly. And the fact that a new Russian record has been made lies a little aside, until it is perceived. However, on July 2, 1998, the record was set. Passed under water along one of the passages in the Ordinskaya cave 970 meters. In September 1998, Muscovites Roman Prokhorov and Igor Galayda walked all the main underwater galleries of the cave to the blocky blockages, increasing its length by another 500 m. The underwater labyrinth of the cave was extended to 2480 m. parts of the cave. The next expeditions to the cave took place in May 2000, July 2001 and July 2003. According to the pioneers (Yu. Bazilevsky, E. Voydakov, I. Galayda, R. Prokhorov, A. Shumeiko), a scheme of the cave was drawn up.


In 2002, the systematic development of the cave by the Perm dive center Nautilus began, both in terms of diving safety and protecting the unique natural object. The cave area is constantly being improved. The first diving base in Russia was built. With the advent of "service" near the cave, the number of visits to the underwater part increased. Teams of cave divers from Perm, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Moscow and Orenburg continued to explore the cave. In August 2006, cave divers from Yekaterinburg explored about 800 m of new underwater galleries. New passages appeared on the map of the cave - Sverdlovsky, Maisky, the "Basement" labyrinth. There is a constant reshooting and specification of the configuration of moves. In connection with new discoveries, the length of the cave has increased to 4800m, 4500m of which is the underwater part. In May 2007 Dmitry Osipov (Yekaterinburg) presented new plan Orda cave. In addition to the contours of the underwater passages, it shows the running ends laid in the cave, the depths of the bottom and ceilings relative to the water level in the inlet lake. To date, this is the most accurate and detailed plan, which will help make diving in the Orda cave more interesting and safe. Among the caves of the Perm Territory, the Ordinskaya cave occupies the 4th place in terms of the length of the passages. However, despite this, it is the longest underwater cave in Russia. Exploration of the cave is not over, and hundreds of meters of underwater galleries are waiting for their discoverers.
That's all, thanks for your attention.

Ordinskaya Cave (Perm Territory, Russia) - detailed description, location, reviews, photos and videos.

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Ordinskaya cave near the village. Orda in the Perm region is known as a unique natural formation, because it is the longest complex of underwater galleries in Russia (4400 m) and the second longest on the Eurasian continent. Also here are the largest siphon in the country, many crystals, stalagmites, stalactites and deep lakes.

ABOUT ancient cave near Kazakovskaya Gora, the local population has known for a long time, but they began to study it only in the 1990s. Even today, it has not been fully explored, new moves are constantly being found. Most of routes passes through the main galleries - Moscow, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Krasnoyarsk passages, and the most beautiful grottoes are recognized as the Ice Palace with Lake Tepliy and Crystal.

Since the 2000s V underground resources divers began to gather not only from Perm, but from all over the country. Later, the first dive site in Russia was opened here and a center for training cave divers was created. Nowadays, the cave has become the most popular place for diving, but only experienced athletes can make them.

Practical information

To get to the cave, you first need to get to Kungur from Perm by train (departs from the railway station Perm-2). Then sit on fixed-route taxi to s. Horde, and after that - just ask any local where to find the base of divers.

The distance from Perm to Orda is about 115 km, so you can quickly get there by car. GPS coordinates: 57°10′55″; 56°53′17″.

Orda- a cave on the southwestern outskirts of the village of Orda in the Perm Territory, on the left bank of the Kungur River. Embedded in gypsum and anhydrite of Permian age. Consists of "dry" and underwater parts. The length of the dry part is 300 meters, underwater - 4600 meters. To date, the Ordinskaya cave is the longest flooded cave in Russia. In addition, part of the cave is the longest siphon in the CIS - 935 meters.

Geological structure

The Orda Cave is located in the bowels of the Kazakovskaya Mountain - a hill with a plateau-like flat top, skirted by the Kungur River. The height of the hill does not exceed 50 m. On its surface there are large sinkholes, in one of which, located on the southern steep slope, is the entrance to the cave.

IN geological structure Two different strata take part in the Kazakovskaya Gora: the cover, consisting of karst-landslide deposits, and bedrock belonging to the Kungurian stage of the Lower Permian. Karst-landslide deposits consist of clays, loams, crushed stone and fragments of destroyed carbonate, less often sulfate rocks. Down the section, they pass into the Olkhovskaya breccia, represented by cemented fragments of limestone and dolomite. The bedrocks are represented by deposits of the Irensky and Filippovsky horizons of the Kungurian stage. Gypsum and anhydrite of the Shalashna member (up to 15 m thick) decomposed from the surface are underlain by the Olkhov breccia, which are replaced down the section by carbonate rocks of the Nevolinsk member (8–12 m thick), and then by gypsum and anhydrite of the Ice Cave member (15–20 m thick). The Ice Cave Member rests on dolomites and limestones of the Filippovsky horizon.

Above the desert surface of the ancient Perm Sea, not only did the sail not show up - even the birds did not fly over it, they simply did not exist on Earth yet. However, already then in the water and on seabed inhabited by countless different creatures. Dying, they left shells and skeletons, which, mixed with bottom silt, formed layers of limestone and dolomite. Because of the rise Ural Range by the end of the Permian period, the sea became shallow, forming large bays. The climate here, in the Cis-Urals, was then warm, and the water in the bays evaporated. As the brines thickened during the evaporation of water, a precipitate fell to the bottom - calcium sulfate, from which solid rocks were subsequently formed - gypsum (hydrous calcium sulfate) and anhydrite (anhydrous calcium sulfate).

The uplift of the Cis-Urals, which lasted for millions of years, was repeatedly interrupted and replaced by a reverse movement. Then the sea came. A deep-sea regime was established with less salty water, in which marine organisms could again live. Layers of limestone and dolomite laid down on the gypsum. This is how the interbedding of gypsum with limestone-dolomite rocks arose, which is observed in the walls and vaults of the Orda cave.

In the second half of the Permian period, the sea finally left the boundaries of the current Perm Territory, leaving vast lakes. grew up here rainforests in which giant lizards lived. Over time, the climate became cooler and drier. The forests have given way steppe spaces where herds of wild animals roamed.

In the last, Quaternary, period, numbering a million years, when man had already appeared on Earth, a sharp cooling set in. Then, on the territory of the present Perm Territory, a cold tundra stretched, along which huge mammoths roamed. Their heavy tusks have been repeatedly found in Ordinsky and neighboring regions.

As a result of new uplifts, the rivers deepened their valleys and cut into the thickness of the petrified marine sediments. White gypsum and limestone rocks protruded along the steep banks. The latter are not monolithic: as a result of mountain-building processes, deep cracks appeared in them, going deep into rocks tens and hundreds of meters. These cracks, called tectonic by geologists, are traced on the earth's surface along elongated relief elements: river and stream valleys, logs, chains of karst funnels. Galleries of underground karst voids - caves - stretch along them. The prevailing directions of cracks in the rocks of the Cis-Urals are northwestern and northeastern, which is in good agreement with the plan of the Ordinskaya cave.

Hydrogeology and karst

River valley Kungur was formed on the western border of the Ufimsky plateau, at the place where carbonate rocks of the Artinsk and Kungurian stages submerged under gypsum and anhydrite of the Iren horizon. Here, fissure-karst waters of the Filippovsko-Artinsk aquifer come to the surface and flow into the gypsum-anhydrite stratum, moving from east to west along the bedding of rocks. Evidence of this are large karst springs along the border of the plateau, one of which (Arsenovsky, with an average annual water flow of about 300 l / s) is located on the right bank of the river. Kungur, 700 m east of the cave entrance. The chains of large karst funnels extended in the meridional direction on the slopes of Kazakovskaya Gora also speak of intense karst processes along this border. The Kungur Ice Cave, the largest gypsum cave in the Urals, is also located near this border.

The expansion of cracks in the galleries and grottoes of caves occurs under the influence of water moving underground, dissolving gypsum and anhydrite. Its source in the depths of Kazakovskaya Gora is limestone and dolomite layers broken by a network of cracks, lying below the layers of gypsum and anhydrite and in direct contact with them. Through these cracks, water enters the cave from the east, from the side of the Ufimsky plateau, in the limestone depths of which large reserves of water have formed, constantly replenished by rains and floods. The movement of groundwater to the cave is largely facilitated by the elevated position of the Ufimsky plateau and the slope of aquifers to the west. Most of the water does not reach the cave, coming to the surface in the form of springs in the Kungur valley. The largest of them - Arsenovsky - is located on the right bank of the river, at the point of its turn to the north. From deep depressions at the bottom of the spring, which forms a vast reservoir, seething cold jets rise. This water flows into Kungur in a fast stream (flow rate - 300-400 l / s), lowering the temperature in the Orda pond by 3 degrees in summer. Groundwater outlets can also be found at the bottom of the Kungur River itself along ascending ice jets.

The same updrafts there is also in the cave, in the recesses of the floor of the galleries of its eastern part. These jets are especially strong during the spring snowmelt, when the inflow into the cave is maximum. This water is rich in lime, since its source is limestone layers, but not saturated with gypsum, so it dissolves well the walls of underwater grottoes and galleries, increasing the volume of the cave. The galleries and grottoes of the famous Kungur Ice Cave grew in approximately the same way, which was also underwater many millennia ago. Due to the constant supply underground water in Orda, its level there is several tens of centimeters higher than in Kungur. Water from the cave seeps to the river through the layers of rocks, forming numerous springs on the left bank. Comparing the sizes of the galleries of Ordinskaya and Kungur caves, we will see that the cross sections of the Ordinskaya cavities often exceed those in the Kungurskaya. This anomaly can be explained by several reasons: the lower specific gravity of the rock in the water, the absence of sharp temperature fluctuations under water, as well as the armoring (preventing the collapse of the vaults) properties of a multi-meter layer of limestone and dolomite, covering a 20-meter thickness of gypsum and anhydrite, in which both once the underwater galleries of the Horde were formed.

When these galleries reach very large transverse dimensions, they can (especially in the presence of large cracks in the vaults) collapse rock blocks from the ceiling. Over time, in such places, halls are formed, filled not with water, but with air. The floors of such halls are powerful talus of rock fragments, cave voids seem to “emerge”. The process of collapse can also affect the layers lying above, in which case dips form on the surface above the cave. Last time such a sinkhole (more than 30 m in diameter and about 20 m deep) formed in May 2008 over a distant, unexplored part of the Krasnoyarsk passage. The entrance to Ordinskaya itself has a failed origin. Over time, the walls of the dips melt away, the depth decreases, and they take the form of karst funnels, common for the over-cave landscape.

Ordinskaya is remarkable not only for the volumes of underwater galleries and grottoes, the mineral formations are also very interesting. In the dry part of the cave, on the surface of dolomite rocks exposed in the walls and vaults not high above the lakes, you can see brushes of transparent crystals of gypsum and calcite, and in the rocks themselves - layers of fibrous gypsum (selenite) up to 5 cm thick. In winter, in the Crystal halls closest to the entrance and the Ice Palace, ice formations grow: stalagmites, stalactites, crystals that are not inferior in beauty to those for which the Kungur Ice is famous.

But the best minerals can be found underwater. Having dissolved the gypsum, the water "dissected" in the vaults of the underwater galleries and halls large crystals of tabular gypsum - "marine glass", intergrowths of fibrous gypsum needles and other minerals. Not so long ago, howlite, a rare mineral in the Urals, was discovered here - a monoclinic natural calcium borosilicate, first described in Canada in 1868.

I. A. Lavrov, “Orda Cave. Cognition"

Life in a cave

Caves - the realm of eternal cold and darkness - seem to us completely lifeless. But even here, in the bowels of the earth, you can meet amazing and mysterious creatures. We are talking about the famous Khlebnikov crangonyx (Crangonyx Chlebnikovi Borutzky), small amphipods of milky or off-white color, sometimes with a yellowish tint.

Mature individuals reach 20-25 mm, weight ranges from 25 to 90 mg. Life in the underground darkness led them to complete loss of sight. Even the eyes themselves disappeared, and in their place only bright yellow spots remained. Another feature of crangoniks - white or slightly yellowish color - is associated with the loss of pigment, which gives other amphipods one color or another. In fact, the covers of these crustaceans are transparent, like glass, and translucent muscle tissue has a white color.

Judging by the entry in the cord book of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, these crustaceans were first discovered by the Moscow zoologist E. V. Borutsky on July 26, 1926 in the lakes of an ice cave in the valley of the Mechka River near the village of Urma (Kungursky district of the Perm Territory). He also described them as a species new to science. And the crustaceans got their name in honor of the first guide and keeper of the Kungur Ice Cave, A. T. Khlebnikov.

Khlebnikov's krangoniks are very rare. Until now, they have been found only in the Ordinsky, Kungursky and Suksunsky districts of the Perm Territory. Most likely in the whole wide world they are nowhere else. That is why Khlebnikov's crangoniks is the only invertebrate species listed in the Red Book of the Perm Territory in the status of the first category of rarity.

Where did these crustaceans come from? How did you get into the earth's interior? What do they eat there, isolated from green plants by many meters of rock? Science does not yet give exact answers to these questions. Scientists managed to find out that Khlebnikov's crangoniks belongs to a very ancient group of crustaceans that lived in the surface water bodies of the Northern Hemisphere back in those days when the entire territory of the Perm Territory was covered with tropical forest.

And then the cold started. The lush tropical flora has left the territory of the Perm Territory, dense broad-leaved forests rustled instead. Millions of years have passed. The ground was getting colder and colder. All northern part The Perm Territory was covered by a huge glacier. Thousands of years have passed since the glaciers left the territory of the Perm Territory. For thousands of years springs and springs have not been frozen in winter. But for some reason, krangoniks do not return to the day surface, where it is warm and there is so much delicious food.

They have changed too much during the time they spent underground. Too visible in their white attire against the dark background of the bottom. Blind and defenseless, they become easy prey for birds, fish and predatory invertebrates. The caves are now their only defense.

But this defense is getting weaker. Khlebnikov's crangoniks are characterized by a very high sensitivity to changes in living conditions. Caves in their natural state are characterized by the stability of the main components of their regime. However, they are not at all as isolated from the outside world as it might seem. Groundwater bodies, including cave lakes, are just as susceptible to pollution as surface water bodies and just as sensitive to events occurring in their catchment areas.

But most of all, tourism is dangerous for the Crangonixes. People leave behind materials that are not typical for caves (or in excessive quantities for them), which can lead to pollution.

For example, among tourists visiting the Kungurskaya Ledyanaya, a tradition has long been cultivated to throw coins into the lake of the Khlebnikov grotto. It is in it that an increased concentration of heavy metal ions is observed, just in this place the minimum number of crangonyxes was recorded, and only here were found crustaceans with necrotic spots on the gill sheets.

Research History

Speleodivers descend into the Main Lake - the main entrance to the underwater part of the Orda Cave.

Active exploration of Ordinskaya began in the early 1990s. In January 1993, the Perm speleologist Andrey Samovolnikov visited the cave, having learned about it from his friends - local residents. He told about the cave to Igor Lavrov, a researcher at the Kungur hospital of the Academy of Sciences, who collected information about all the caves in the region. In November of the same year, Lavrov organized a small expedition, inviting members of the school tourist circle from Odintsovo near Moscow, who had come to Kungur for the holidays, to participate in it. The volumes of the cavities amazed the researchers - the size of the grottoes was comparable to the size of the large halls of the Kungur Ice. Deep clean lakes, high gypsum vaults, bizarre snow and ice decoration of the halls in winter - all this only emphasized the similarity of the two caves.

In March 1994, at the invitation of Igor, an experienced speleologist-scuba diver from Ryazan, Viktor Komarov, came to the Perm region (now the Perm Territory) to dive into the final siphon of the Parallelnaya cave in the vicinity of Gubakha. The underwater passage turned out to be too narrow, the discovery did not take place, and since the air in the cylinders remained, it was decided to check the lakes in the Orda cave. No one has ever dived there before...

The lake in the Ice Palace grotto, unexpectedly for the researchers, turned out to be frozen. The ice was about half a meter thick, and the lane was made for a long time.

Viktor Komarov recalls:

“The size of the lane made it possible to pass with only one 7-liter cylinder on its side - this is quite enough for an exploratory dive. Diving from the surface was provided by Igor Lavrov. He gave out a wire (running end) from the coil. Several stones and boulders were wedged in the underwater course rushing down. They held on tenaciously and were thrown off. After clearing the passage, I went under the ceiling of a wide gallery that led right and left. First I decided to scout the right continuation. Having walked along it for about 30 m, I realized that a single-cylinder apparatus is clearly not enough here. A powerful halogen flashlight made it possible to assess the situation well. Coming out of the siphon, I decided to dive again and explore the left continuation, but with a two-balloon apparatus.

However, in the left gallery, the running end got stuck in the slot, and the submariner had to quickly return. In this direction, 70 m were covered, and in total 100 m were explored. The first step in the study of the Ordinskaya siphons was taken. At the same time, a plan was drawn up for the dry part of the cave known at that time.

In January 1995, during a joint trip to the Horde by speleologists and tourists from Kungur and Perm, Andrey Samovolnikov discovered a passage to the farthest grottoes of the dry part of the cave. The first of them was later named in honor of the professor of Perm State University G.A. Maksimovich, and the second, with big lake, - in honor of the famous Russian speleologist Vladimir Kiselev, who tragically died in one of the underwater caves Arkhangelsk region in March of the same 1995. In February 1996 new part The cave was mapped by Igor Lavrov and speleologists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Speleoclub "Barrier", leader - Pavel Luzan).

In July 1996, Pyotr Minenkov, a speleologist from Krasnoyarsk, with the support of Andrey Karpov and Sergey Kravtsov, speleologists from Yekaterinburg, explored the next 250 m of underwater passages. Behind the first siphon, 75 m long, he discovered a large dry grotto, 50 m in diameter and up to 10 m high, which was later called the Dry Hall. Since that time, the news of an unusually large underwater cave in the Urals began to spread rapidly ...

In December 1997, the first All-Russian speleological expedition started. Teams from Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Moscow came to the Horde. Yuri Bazilevsky (Chelyabinsk) was the coordinator and initiator of the expedition, and Igor Lavrov (Kungur) was the supervisor.

In December 2012, a diver from Izhevsk, Vladimir Fedorov, set an extreme record in the Ordinskaya cave by swimming through an underwater gallery in one breath hold of 100 meters.

It would be more correct to call the Orda cave flooded, because it consists not only of the underwater, but also of the so-called dry part. The length of each of them is respectively 300 and 4600 meters. Cave diving fans no longer have to go for thrills to Mexico or the Dominican Republic - diving enthusiasts get a real chance to become pioneers here. For example, a new lake, a rock, a tunnel.

"Russian Florida" - this is how extreme people all over the world speak of it, for whom it has become a real "Mecca". In the Orda cave, located in the shade Ural mountains, along which the border of Europe and Asia passes, is amazing clear water, which is filtered by rock layers. And white plaster walls turn it into a real underwater palace or even a whole kingdom. Hidden here Magic world- huge grottoes and halls, labyrinths of narrow passages, corridors and tunnels - have not yet been fully explored.

Diving in the Orda cave is a serious test of endurance, endurance and self-discipline. It can become an unforgettable and the brightest event in life for true adventurers.

pioneers

This remarkable in every respect is located natural object in the Perm region, near the village of Orda, namely, in the place where the Kungur River goes around a high flat hill called Kazakovskaya Gora. It has a lot of large karst funnels. The entrance to the Orda cave is located on the southeastern slope, at an altitude of about 50 meters above the river. The diameter of the funnel is approximately 5 meters and the depth is about 2 meters.

The first mention of the Orda cave dates back to 1969, although the locals have always known about it. In the list of caves, it was listed as Kazakovskaya, which had a depth of 10 meters.

Full-scale research began in 1992, when the Perm caver A.M. Samovolnikov studied the numerous karst funnels of Kazakovskaya Gora. He suggested that this particular cave could hide many tunnels. Speleologists from Moscow, Kungursk and Perm took part in an organized research expedition in 1993-1994. As a result, about 300 meters of overland underground passages were mapped. The first scuba dive was made by V. Komarov, a speleologist from Ryazan. He discovered a real underwater kingdom. Another 350 meters of tunnels were marked on the map. In 1997, the All-Russian expedition studied a siphon 650 meters long.

Many enthusiasts descended into these caves filled with water. Research was difficult, because at that time there were no necessary equipment for such purposes. And only the appearance of modern equipment in the late 90s made it possible to open more than 2.5 km of cave tunnels. Of these, 2.2 km are under water. This is how the passages appeared: Chelyabinsk, Moscow, Sverdlovsk, Krasnodar, and our contemporaries became pioneers.

Here is the largest siphon not only in the country, but in the entire former Soviet Union - its length is 935 meters. The depth of the underwater part is more than 40 meters. Today, about 4.6 km of tunnels have been explored and mapped. How much has not yet been explored is unknown.

The underwater world of the Orda cave

The so-called dry part of the cave has a length of 300 meters. It is especially beautiful here in winter, when stalactites, stalagmites, bizarre crystals form. The spectacle is truly fantastic. And the Orda cave is not inferior in beauty to the famous Kungur ice cave.

The overland passage leads to the lake. The dive begins. It takes a few minutes for the eyes to get used to absolute darkness (divers take several flashlights with them: the main one and spare ones). The body adapts to being under water - it is very cold all year round. Two tunnels lead further. One is a horizontal dead end, very fond of beginners. They pull it out, as they say, “by the flippers”, since the gap is small. Through the so-called "skin derer", it is vertical and very narrow, divers enter the Entrance Hall upside down. Here the gallery of tunnels forks. At the fork there is a huge block, for which the main "way" is fixed.

Grotto "Crystal" is a hall 30 by 15 meters, the height of which is about 8 meters. And the Ice Palace grotto is even bigger. On the walls and vaults - limestone and gypsum. The walls are light, and in combination with the blue tint of the waters, they give the feeling of a real underwater kingdom. From the "Ice Palace" you can get to two underground lakes: Warm and Main. Although the name "Warm" is hardly true, since the water temperature in the Orda cave ranges from 4 to 8 degrees. There is a thermometer on the walls.

Grottoes, palace halls, opening before the eyes underwater lakes- the spectacle is amazing! Huge fragments from the ceiling are piled up below, which should not be surprising: the rock is fragile. The water is stunning with its blueness and transparency, the beam of the lantern goes far beyond 50 meters, is lost in the depths. But the diver needs to move very carefully so as not to muddy the water, otherwise nothing will be visible and he may lose orientation. The walls are covered with gypsum dust, and at the bottom - gray silt. On the walls of the cave you can see amphipods and shrimps.

In the Ordinskaya cave there are several halls with above-water space - here you can freely breathe the air and relax. There are side branches in the long tunnels that look like dark subway tunnels. Many of them have not been studied to this day. The area of ​​underwater lakes, according to some researchers, is about 50 thousand square meters. Cellars, rocks, tunnels, figure eights - the beauty of the underwater kingdom really exceeds all conceivable expectations!

Like all mysterious places, Orda cave has its own legend - a guardian spirit. More specifically, guardians. A unique photo session was held here with the participation of a Russian freediver, two-time world champion in the team event Natalia Avseenko, who played the role of a beautiful beauty - the Mistress of the Horde. This beautiful place inspired and continues to inspire Russian and foreign documentaries and photographers.

In the cave you can find a dummy mine - this is a joke of the guys from the Nautilus scuba diving club. Under New Year here they even decorate a Christmas tree underwater. It is considered aerobatics to sip champagne near a decorated tree. And, of course, take a picture for memory against the background of a green beauty.

The most difficult diving site

deep sea dive- sport, as you know, is dangerous. It requires serious physical and mental preparation. The minimum weight of a diver's equipment is about 100 kg. Caves filled with water are not for people suffering from claustrophobia or panic attacks. Here the risk is not justified. There have been two fatalities in the history of active diving. Moreover, the diver who died here in 2009 studied at a specialized school in Florida. One of the grottoes of the dry part of the Ordinskaya cave is named after the speleologist who tragically died while exploring the underwater caves of the Arkhangelsk region - Vladimir Kiselev.

Today, groups accompanied by experienced leaders descend equipped with the most modern equipment: underwater computers on the arm, back cameras (for balance). Underwater diving at such a difficult range as the Orda Cave requires maximum composure, attentiveness, and compliance with all safety rules. After all, this landfill has gained a reputation as one of the most difficult.

How to get to the Orda cave

Today, leading tour operators organize trips to the Orda Cave and dives under the guidance of experienced professionals. You can get there, arrange an escort, book a hotel on your own.

The distance from Moscow to Perm is 1440 km. This is a two-hour flight by plane and a couple of hours by car to the village of Orda.

From Ufa to the Ordinskaya cave - 420 km. You can also take a train to the city of Kungur (40 minutes by car from the city to the Orda cave). In this case, you should definitely visit the Kungur Ice Cave. There are hotels in the city: "Kungur", " Old city"," Iren. You can have a wonderful stay at the base next to the Ordinskaya cave.

Once upon a time, coming here was accompanied by enormous difficulties. There was no place to stop, to prepare equipment. At the initiative of the Perm Federation of Underwater Sports, the club "Nautilus" a base was built. Today, at the service of visitors and cozy houses, and wardrooms, saunas, kitchen, compressor room. Porters will carry heavy equipment into the cave. There is a metal staircase for the descent. The light is on. There are wooden benches in the cave - you can prepare for the upcoming dive.

According to the forecasts of some scientists, in a couple of thousand years, the water may leave the Orda cave forever. And today all adventure lovers have a real chance to be at the peak of pleasure and experience an unforgettable adventure!