The largest cave on earth. The most famous caves in the world. Caves by type of host rocks

April 14th, 2013

Mammoth Cave is a place of beauty, mystery and paradox. This is a real kingdom of underground lakes and canyons, waterfalls and streams, narrow passages and domed large halls. Located 80 km from Bowling Green, Kentucky, the cave contains one of the largest underground tunnel systems in the world, which is why it is included in the list world heritage UNESCO. Mysterious sinkholes, underground waterfalls and cave formations in the gypsum karst attract numerous visitors. Nobody knows the true size of the Mammoth Cave yet. New caverns and passageways are constantly being opened up, the subterranean boundaries of this spectacular labyrinth are expanding deeper and deeper into the depths. underworld. Mammoth Cave is the world's longest underground labyrinth system, if the second and third longest caves in the world were combined, it would still be the longest in the world with a margin of 160 km!

People entered the Mammoth Cave and lived here since historical times. Anthropologists believe that Native Americans first discovered it about 4,000 years ago. For lighting, they used torches made from bunches of reeds that still continue to grow nearby. The charred remains of these ancient torches have been found for many kilometers inside the cave. Almost 5 kilometers from the entrance, the mummified body of a gypsum miner, who died about 2000 years ago, was found. He was crushed to death by a huge 5-ton block. The human body and clothes are well preserved.

The cave was known from time immemorial to Indian tribes. In a cave speleologists mummies of Indian tribes were found. Mammoth Cave was discovered by American colonists back in 1797. Legend has it that the first European to discover Mammoth Cave was either John Howchine or his brother Francis Howchine. In 1797, while hunting, Howchin pursued a wounded bear and discovered the entrance to a cave near the Green River.

Further in 1798, Valentine Simon purchased a cave for the development and extraction of potassium nitrate. As a result of the Anglo-American War of 1812-1814, saltpeter prices skyrocketed. During the War of 1812, the cave served as an important source of saltpeter, for the extraction of which they used the labor of mainly the black population of America. Saltpeter mining at that time had great importance, since it served as a key component for the manufacture of gunpowder. During the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, much of the saltpeter needed for warfare was mined from mammoth cave. Its owners relied on the labor of 70 African slaves to extract this valuable mineral.

Further, the Mammoth Cave was bought out by entrepreneurs Charles Wilkins and Hyman Gratz for the industrial production of saltpeter and calcium nitrate. But the war ended, and as a result of a decline in demand for saltpeter, prices began to fall, which made the production of saltpeter extremely unprofitable. Mining and production of saltpeter was stopped, and the cave was turned into a tourist attraction. local importance and later global.

After the end of the war in 1815, saltpeter prices plummeted, and its extraction became unprofitable. However, people who learned about the cave began to visit it to see with their own eyes the huge size of this underground miracle. In the following decades, the cave turned into a popular tourist attraction.

In 1838, the cave was purchased by slave owner Franklin Gorin. Gorin appointed one of his slaves, Stephen Bishop, as an escort for the then-visitors of the cave. Bishop made attempts to explore the cave, which were sufficiently successful. AND Bishop became the first explorer of the cave. Bishop discovered many interesting and beautiful places caves, to which he gave his names. Bishop was the first to successfully cross the so-called. Bottomless pit. After that, Bishop concluded that the cave has a much greater extent than previously thought. Subsequently, Bishop compiled a map, on which he carried more than 16 kilometers of the routes he had laid. This map was the only guide to Mammoth Cave for 40 years.

Stephen Bishop proved to be a talented explorer and guide. He made many discoveries that increased the popularity of the cave over the next decade. Stephen became the first person to cross the "Abyss" (Bottomless Pit) - a large hole over 30 meters deep. Stephen Bishop became one of the most famous guides in the history of Mammoth Cave, and almost everyone who visited the cave needed his advice. Many of his discoveries are described in the guidebook Rambles in the Mammoth Cave.

Later in 1839, doctor John Croghan bought the cave along with the slaves, including Bishop from Gorin. John Krogan had attempts to make a treatment-and-prophylactic hospital out of the caves, but without much success.

Dr. Krogan was interested in the cave's possible healing properties. He believed that the cave's constant temperature and humidity could be beneficial for people with tuberculosis. In the spring of 1842, he placed the sick with this disease in wooden and stone houses built in the center of the cave. Visitors from that period spoke of persistent coughs they heard from patients living in these lodges. In 1843, the experiment ended in complete failure. Several patients died, and the condition of others worsened. It is obvious that the high humidity inside the cave and the low temperature only harmed, and did not help sick people. In Mammoth Cave, two stone houses are still preserved as a memory of this experiment. Ironically, Dr. Croghan himself died of this severe illness in 1849.

Attempts to turn the cave into a tuberculosis sanatorium were unsuccessful. And in 1845 Alexander Bullitt published the book Rambles in Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844, by a Visiter. Gradually Mammoth Cave became more famous. And with the passage of transport arteries to nearby cities at the end of the 19th century, made it possible for tourists to visit the caves. What made the Mammoth Cave subsequently an important tourist attraction USA.

In the 1920s and 1930s, attempts were made, which were subsequently crowned with success, to acquire land around the cave. And thanks to these efforts, both on the part of the authorities and on the part of interested citizens, in 1941 national park"Mammoth Cave".

Further in the course scientific research from 1954 to 1961, speleological expeditions found that mammoth cave, as well as a number of other nearby caves, Crystal, Neizvestnaya and Salty, are part of the same karst cave system. In 1972, a speleological expedition conducting research in Mammoth Cave, based on their research, concluded that Mammoth Cave connected with the nearby Flint Ridge cave system. This means that all the caves in the area are nothing but one whole cave system.

cave wars Kentucky

The difficulties of farming on infertile, poor soils served as the reason for the desire of the owners small caves located near Mamontova to switch from farming to other types of business. Thanks to the development of transport in the first quarter of the 20th century - rail and road - the number of visitors to the cave increased significantly. In the mid-1920s, the area around Mammoth Cave became the center of what historians have called the "Kentucky Cave Wars," a period of intense competition between local cave owners to generate tourism money.

A widely practiced practice of deception was used to lure tourists into other small caves. Along the roads leading to the Mammoth Cave, fake road signs, who led tourists astray and directed them to other caves. The owners of these small caves made visitors think that they had visited Mamontova, although in reality it was a completely different cave. A typical strategy at the initial stage of origin car travel consisted in the fact that a capper (a person who lures simpletons), jumping on the bandwagon of a passing tourist car, convinced passengers that the Mammoth Cave was closed, quarantined, collapsed, in a word, inaccessible to the public and offered them to visit another cave.

Creation national park mammoth cave

After Dr. Krogan's death, his nephews and nieces owned the cave in trust until the last of the heirs died in 1926. According to his will, after the death of the last heir, Mammoth Cave should be sold at an open auction. With the death of the last heir of Dr. Krogan, a movement spread among wealthy Kentuckians to create a national park on the territory of the cave. The citizens of the state formed a public organization Mammoth Cave National Park Association. They believed that the only way to ensure its protection for future generations was to create a national park.

Mammoth Cave was considered a clear candidate for park status and state support. In fact, the national park project proved to be a formidable task, because, unlike the territories of such parks as Yellowstone and Yosemite, the area around Mammoth Cave was occupied by farmers and local entrepreneurs, many of whom did not want to leave their lands, and opposed the creation of a national park. parka.

On May 25, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signed into law the creation of Mammoth Cave National Park. The law tied the creation of the park to contingent donations of land to the federal government.

Donations from wealthy citizens were used to acquire the land of some farms, while other plots of land were acquired under the legal right of the state to alienate private property. Unlike the education of others national parks United States in sparsely populated areas of the country, thousands of people were forced to move to other places of residence. Like the American Indians who originally inhabited the area, the descendants of European settlers who arrived in the Green River Valley in the 1790s also had to leave the area.

Mammoth Cave National Park was officially opened on July 1, 1941 with the aim of "protecting a unique underground labyrinth, hilly terrain above, and the valley of the river Green.

How was the cave formed?

Ancient sea covered central part present-day United States 325 million years ago, depositing more than 180 meters of soluble limestone, later covered by a layer of sandstones and shale deposited ancient river. The top layer covered the bottom like an umbrella. The sea and the river disappeared, and the forces of erosion eroded this upper layer about 10 million years ago, when cracks and holes opened the limestone to the outside. Geologists believe that the old part of the Mammoth Cave began to form about 10 million years ago. Rainwater, oxidized by carbon dioxide in the soil, seeped through the cracks and began to dissolve the limestone, creating the labyrinth of passageways, amphitheaters, rooms and voids we know as Mammoth Cave.

Many interior features such as stalagmites, stalactites and columns formed at the rate of one cubic inch every 100 to 200 years.

Why is it called "Mammoth Cave"?

The name Mammoth was first used to describe the cave in the early 1800s. The name was used due to the huge size of the systems of labyrinths and passages, and has nothing to do with the mammoth. Any information about the discovery of mammoth remains here is not true.

Length of Mammoth Cave?

To date, researchers have mapped 584 km of passages, making Mammoth Cave the longest cave system in the world. Explorers are still discovering new passages, and, as is often said, "the end of the edge is not in sight." Professional speleologists continue to study the cave system, making new maps and discovering new passages, many of which are hard-to-reach corridors.

The bats

Mammoth Cave once had a population of 9-12 million bats in the historical section alone. Although bats continue to live in the cave, today their number does not exceed a few thousand. Now environmentalists are working on a program to restore the bat population.

Tourism and attractions Mammoth Cave

The US National Park Service offers visitors a number of cave tours. Tours last from one to six hours. The two tours are run using only paraffin lamps and are a popular alternative to the electrically lit trails. Several "wild" tours deviate from well explored parts of the cave and lead into dusty tunnels.

Park tours are distinguished by the quality of explanatory programs. Information for tourists depends on the tour chosen, so by taking several tours, tourists will learn about the various aspects of the formation of the cave and its history.

The six hour tour is the most popular among tourists. Groups pass through Cleveland Avenue, which is a long cylindrical hall carved groundwater. Its walls gleam with white gypsum, crystallized under a layer of limestone. The route then passes through the Snowball Dining Room, where you can stop and have a bite to eat. After that, the tour goes through Boone Avenue − deep gorge, the width of which is so narrow that you can easily touch the opposite walls of the passage with both hands. The tour ends at Frozen Niagara. Mineral-rich water, seeping through the rock, gradually formed Frozen Niagara, a characteristic feature of which is the presence of stalactites, stalagmites, images stone waves on the walls, simulating the fall of water.

One part of Mammoth Cave is called the Methodist Church, where it is believed that religious rites were held in the early 1800s. Visitors to this part of the cave are given the opportunity to experience what the first tourists felt. The guide turns off the lights and lights the torches, and visitors see firsthand how the cave looked before the installation of electric lighting here.

Buta Amphitheater - other famous place Mammoth Cave, visited by actor Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. Edwin Booth is said to have recited Hamlet's monologue "To be or not to be" at this point.

Nearby is a deep hole in the ground, known as the Abyss (Bottomless Pit). It was named by the cave's first tour guides, unable to see its bottom through the faint light of oil lamps. The depth of the Bottomless Pit is 32 meters.

Entrance to Mammoth Cave. One of the most famous and most photographed objects in the park. It is especially good when you look outside from the middle of the cave.

The most famous and popular once Eco-River tour, during which tourists had the opportunity to sail on a boat along underground river, was canceled in the early 1990s for environmental reasons. In addition, the maintenance of cave passages for viewing by the public, periodically subjected to floods, was incredibly costly. During the season, tourists are offered a cave tour that allows you to see the underground river.

Visitors to the national park rarely see more than 20 km of passages available for guided tours. If there free time you can explore the cave on your own. In addition, you can practice hiking or horseback riding on over 112 km2 of land on the surface of the park, fishing and rowing on the Green River.

Peak tourist season in the park falls during the summer, when an average of 5,000 to 7,000 visitors visit the park daily. Approximately 500,000 tourists visit the cave every year.

mammoth cave formed more than 10 million years ago in a thick limestone bed beneath the Big Clifty Sandstone in the western foothills of the Appalachians under the Flint Ridge. The top layer of sandstone covers and protects most of the cave from seeping water. Therefore, the upper passages of the cave are very dry, this explains the lack of stalactites, stalagmites and other sinter formations. But in some places, due to erosion and cracks, water still penetrates the cave, forming beautiful panoramas, for example, in the hall “Frozen Niagara. Water, accumulating at the lower levels, forms lakes and rivers. One of these underground rivers, the Echo River, is up to 60 meters wide and about 10 meters deep. Until the 1990s, there were frequent tourist boat trips on the river, but they were subsequently discontinued due to financial difficulties, as well as for environmental reasons.

The largest caves on the planet amaze with their grandeur, which can bewitch anyone. It is terrible to look into the trap of a huge cave. It seems that it is impossible to get out of this place back. This mysterious separate world of silence and silence is able to suck any careless tourist into its expanses.

Expeditions to explore the most difficult caves began in the 18th century. A well-known scientist at that time, I. Nagel, led the largest expedition to the caves of Moravia. During the expedition, the group reached a depth of 138 m.

A large amount of knowledge about underground depths was introduced by M. Lomonosov. Explanation of the chemical nature of caves - Lomonosov's theory. The movement of air at the depth of caves and the formation of stalactites and stalagmites, as well as the formation of ice in caves - this knowledge is the merit of our scientist.

Absolutely all caves are different from each other, but they can be safely attributed to the list on Earth. The presence of wells, lakes, grottoes, waterfalls and glaciers are the elements of the caves that create the overall picture and make certain differences.

For centuries, water erodes rocks and creates huge labyrinths of mysterious and powerful caves. What are the largest caves on earth?

We bring to your attention the 7 most huge caves Earth.

Krubera cave.

Kruber's Cave is also called Crow's Cave. It is one of the deepest caves on the planet. Voronya is the only cave that has a depth of more than 2 km. It is located in Georgia. The entrance to its open spaces is located at an altitude of 2249 m. The vertical cave has many wells that are connected big amount stiles. At a depth of about 200 meters, the cave is divided into 2 branches. The main branch - has a depth of 2197 m. Nekuibyshevskaya - 1698 m.

The Krubera Cave was discovered in 1960 by the expedition of the Research Institute named after. Bagrationi. Crow Cave has seen a huge number of different expeditions and scientific research.

Jeita caves.

The Lebanese great caves are among the most magical caves on the ground. The upper cave was discovered in 1836, the lower one much later - in 1958. The length of the cave is 2250 m.
Jeita is very popular among tourists, who have the opportunity to visit only part of the cave 700 m deep, the rest of the path is blocked. The upper cave has 3 halls and special underground reservoirs. Stalagmites and stalactites also adorn the view of the Lebanese cave.

Mammoth Cave.

The Mammoth karst cave system is located in Kentucky (United States).

A national park was also built there, and the cave is its landmark and pride. Mammoth Cave is considered the longest cave in the world (588 km). Mammoth Cave has 226 underground passages, as well as more than 20 halls and 25 deep mines.

By the way, the name "Mammoth" is not associated with any surname or with mammoths. "Mammoth" means "huge".

It is known that Mammoth Cave was formed more than 10 million years ago. The Indians knew about its existence. This fact was confirmed by scientists after Indians with mummies were found in the cave.

Caves of Crystals.

The Crystal Cave is the most unusual and amazing cave in the whole world. It is located in Mexico and is unique because it is filled with giant gypsum crystals. The largest crystal was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century. It is 11 meters long and weighs 54 tons. The temperature inside the cave exceeds +50°C at 100% humidity.

The cave was discovered in 1910 by Mexican miners. " Ice Palace"- the most famous hall of the Crystal Caves complex. It was discovered during drilling operations in 2009. Oddly enough, with its depth of 150 m, the hall is not filled with water.

Dragon Caves.

The Dragon Caves have amazing beauty and are the main mystery of Mallorca. Exploration of these caves began in 1886.
The caves are 1250 m long, equipped with special lighting equipment and a huge auditorium, which was built for various shows and concerts. Musical performances take place on boats on Lake Martel.

Sondong cave.

The largest cave in the world is located in Vietnam. They learned about it in 1991, and in 2009 a group of British scientists began a deep study of Shondong. The cave with the highest and widest passages has a total volume of 38 million m³.
In Shondong sprouting their own jungle (the height of the trees reaches 3 meters) and the river flows with a fairly fast current.

Optimistic cave.

The cave is located on the territory of Ukraine and reaches a length of more than 200 km. The cave, discovered in 1966, has not been fully explored. In the cave, in addition to stalactites, there are formations resembling the crystals of the Crystal Cave in Mexico. However, the crystals of the Optimistic Cave are much smaller.
The name "Optimistic" cave was due to the fact that, contrary to the forecasts of other scientists, Lviv speleologists considered the cave one of the largest in the USSR. As a result, their assumptions were confirmed.

Shondong - a cave in Central Vietnam, currently holding the title of the largest cave in the world. It is located in the heart of Phong Nha Kebang National Park in Quang Binh Province, near the Vietnamese-Lao border. Its dimensions reach record levels - the height is 200 meters, the width is 150 meters, and the length is more than 5 kilometers. The total volume of the unique formation is 38.5 million m³.

Deep in the jungle, the entrance to the cave was first discovered by a local resident named Ho Han in 1991, but the roar of water flowing from there and the steep descent prevented him from exploring it from the inside. Only in 2009, a group of British scientists led by Howard Limbert managed to discover and successfully study Son Doong in Vietnam, after which they announced official opening caves and confirmed that the dimensions allow it to be given the status of the largest on the planet.

“Hang Sơn Đoòng” is Vietnamese for “cave mountain river". It really has an underground river with a fast current that floods parts of Sondong during the rainy season. In addition, it has its own jungle, climate and even real clouds that form due to the large temperature difference. Two huge windows of a giant underground cavity allow light to penetrate into many parts of it, thanks to which a lush jungle with 3-meter trees grows inside.

Son Doong is famous not only for its impressive size, but also for the best examples of cave formations on the planet. Here you can find interesting ancient fossils, stalactites and some of the tallest stalagmites in the world up to 70 meters high. especially impressive education considered the "Hand of the Dog" and a place called the Cactus Garden. Also in the cave there are examples of giant cave pearls that fill the limestone layers.

The flora and fauna of Shondong is a godsend for any scientist. Many rare plant species grow on the territory of the cave, and a number of new animal species have even been discovered recently. Monkeys, hornbills and flying foxes all live in this unusual underground jungle.

The unique cave was formed as a result of a long process of washing out limestone by a water stream. about 2-5 million years ago.

In early August 2013, the first tourist group. To get inside the attraction, you need with a ropego underground to a depth of 80 meters. Tourists crash there camping while spending time in mazes underground cave or sitting comfortably by the fire. The cost of such entertainment is $ 3,000. In the period from September to March, access to the cave is closed, as the rainy season sets in, during which many areas are flooded. The tour schedule for 2015 will be posted on the tour site later this year.

The world's largest cave, called Sơn Đoòng, attracts a lot of attention from many film companies such as the BBC, National Geographic, as well as famous Japanese and Brazilian teams. In 2011, she appeared on the pages of the popular National Geographic magazine.

The greatest caves in the world are caves that simply amaze with their size, their beauty or their unusualness. This article is devoted to just such caves, caves that are worth paying attention to, and if possible, be sure to visit.

In this list of the greatest caves in the world, the most - the most caves of our planet are collected.
Cave Krubera - Voronya, the most deep cave in the world. Its depth is two kilometers 190 meters.

This cave is located in the mountains of Abkhazia, the entrance to it is at an altitude of 2250 meters.

The study of the cave has been going on for about fifty years, it became the deepest when speleologists once again set a record - having descended to a depth of 1720 meters. It happened in 2001, and in 2007 a new record was already set - 2190 meters.

Jeita Caves are one of the most beautiful caves on earth. Jeita Caves are karst limestone caves.

There are two caves - one lower, the other upper, and they are interconnected. This miracle of nature is located in the vicinity of the city of Jeita, in Libya. The total length of the caves is nine kilometers.

The lower cave was discovered in 1836, the upper one only in 1958. The caves are visited by many tourists. By lower cave movement takes place by boat, along an underground river and lake. Also, according to some reports, this unique cave is the most large stalactite in the world, 8.2 meters long.

The longest cave in the world is located in the USA. This is Mammoth Cave. The cave was formed in the foothills of the Appalachians, Kentucky

The length of its explored part is 587 kilometers. The cave is karst, its discovery took place in 1797. There are 225 passages in the cave, more than forty large halls and shafts. It is quite dry, but there are also areas with underground rivers and lakes.

In 1941, the Mammoth Cave National Park was created. Anyone can walk through the cave labyrinths, both in equipped areas with electric light, and in wild places.

The guides accompanying the excursions will tell you everything about this amazing cave, about its formation, about the history of its discovery.

Waitomo Cave in New Zealand also claims to be the most beautiful cave.

The highlight of the cave is the local fireflies, or rather their larvae, which glow in the dark. The cave consists of three levels, which are connected by a shaft. Tourists moving along the underground river by boat admire the most beautiful sight, reminiscent of a scattering of stars in the night sky.

In this case, silence must be observed, the larvae, having heard the noise, can go out. The cave has been known for a very long time, tourists began to drive into it as early as 1889.

No less beautiful, amazing and unusual is Son Doong Cave, located in Vietnam. The cave became widely known not long ago - in 2009. The surprise of the British cavers who went down there is hard to convey.

They saw the huge halls of the cave reaching 200 by 150 meters in size, huge stalagmites, a fairly wide river and even a section of the jungle. The study of the cave has not yet been completed, perhaps in the future, local authorities will also organize a tourist infrastructure here.

Probably the most unusual cave located in Mexico. This is the Crystal Cave or Crystal Cave.

Selenite crystals are the largest and most natural crystals in nature. The climate in the cave is special - the temperature reaches 58 degrees Celsius, and the humidity is up to 99%.

The Dragon Caves are another contender for the title of the most beautiful cave in the world. There are caves in the eastern part of Mallorca, their length is 1300 meters.

The exploration of the caves took place in 1886. There are six lakes in the caves, the largest of which, Lake Martel, measures 177 by 40 meters and is 9 meters deep. In 1935, the cave was equipped with lighting equipment. The auditorium for a thousand people, which is located near Lake Martel, was specially built for the show, which takes place underground. Musicians on boats, to the beautiful classical music, and under beautiful lighting effects, symbolizing the dawn over the lake, slowly float into the underground lake.

In our country, there are also many amazing caves, probably the most famous of them is the Kungurskaya ice cave located in the Perm region.

The length of the cave is not large - 5.7 kilometers, of which one and a half kilometers are equipped for tourists. The cave was explored at the beginning of the 18th century. There are 50 grottoes, 70 lakes, 146 "organ pipes" in the cave.

The constant temperature in the center of the cave is 5 degrees with a plus sign, and in some grottoes it can drop to -30 degrees below zero. An ancient cave painting was found in the cave. Every year many tourists from all over our country visit this cave.

Another of the most beautiful and greatest caves in the world is located in China. This is the Reed Flute Cave.

The cave was discovered a very long time ago, more than ten centuries ago.

In addition to the lake, numerous stalactites and stalagmites, the cave contains more than 70 rock inscriptions dating back to 792 AD.

Tourists have been visiting the cave since 1940. Artificial lighting creates a fairy-tale atmosphere in the cave, the vaults of the cave illuminated in different colors are reflected in the lake, further enhancing the fantastic picture.

Our planet is a place of amazing wonders and unusual mysteries. It would seem that a person has mastered even the most remote corners of the Earth, but at the same time has not discovered all its secrets. In addition to those known to everyone, there is a huge number of man-made and natural objects that amaze the imagination and minds of all mankind. Among them is the largest in a unique formation with its own ecosystem. Let's talk about where it is, when it was opened and how distinctive features possesses.

Shondong: size statistics

Son Doong is the largest cave in the world. Similar statement local residents was supported by facts obtained by a research expedition from England in 2009. According to dry statistics, the formation has a volume of about 38.5 million cubic meters, a height of about 200 meters, and a width of about 150 meters. Once in such an underground kingdom, willy-nilly, any person can be confused by the grandeur, size and scope.

Discovery history

The unofficial history of the cave begins in 1991, it was from this period of time that the local population mentioned its presence, until that date no information was provided. At the same time, one should not forget that the underground grotto of colossal dimensions was formed by the water element for at least two million years in a row. Evidence of the significant age of the cave are huge stalagmites, as well as other bizarre stone formations.

How to get to the cave?

Where is the largest cave in the world located? Vietnam, Quang Binh Province is the address you will have to follow to visit it. Not far from the border with Laos, in these places, there is a national natural park called Phong Nha - Kebang, and it is here that a unique natural formation is located. Finding the entrance to the cave is quite difficult, this is due to the fact that it is located in a rather wild area, in the realm of mountains and jungles. Perhaps this fact explains the fact that for a long time the underground formation was not discovered and was not explored even after the discovery at the end of the 20th century. The descent into the ground is carried out by ropes, which is also a rather serious obstacle and test.

Beauty and features of Shondong

What is the largest cave in the world famous for? Photos of education amaze with amazing beauty and scale. First of all, most travelers are in awe of which flows in the bowels of the earth and in the hard rocks of several kilometers. On its shores, the most desperate daredevils even pitch tents, but you won’t be able to enjoy the silence far from civilization either. The splashing of water and the howling of the wind in the bowels of the cave create a frightening atmosphere worthy of any horror movie.

In addition to the river, Son Doong also has its own green spaces, the jungle, in which indigenous inhabitants may also be present. So, here there are various insects and snakes, a little less often birds and even monkeys. Unique Feature The local ecosystem is considered to have a unique underground climate. Habitual fogs and clouds are found even underground, which in itself is very unusual and intriguing. In fact, it is explained quite simply, a significant temperature difference between the surface and the underground leads to the formation of clouds and other similar phenomena.

You can visit Son Doong at any time, except for the rainy season. During this period, the caves are filled with water to a dangerous level, which means that visiting them can be extremely dangerous for the life of researchers.

Other contenders for the main title

IN different time The title of the largest cave in the world was claimed by:

Unique world dungeons

Now that you know the name of the largest cave in the world, we can talk about other unique underground kingdoms that are popular with amateurs. extreme recreation and unity with nature. So, the list of the most interesting formations can include:

Kingdom of ice

The world's largest ice cave is located in New Zealand and is compound name Isriesennvelt, its area is approximately 300 square kilometers, which allows it to be the absolute champion in its category in terms of dimensions. Beautiful and cold ice formations are found in Iceland (Vatnaekul is forbidden to visit during the warm season due to high risks of melting and collapse), in Russia (grotto in Austria.

film about the cave

Delight and inspiration - this is what causes the largest cave in the world in people. Sanctum, a 2011 science fiction film about a cave, tells the story of a group of explorers descending into the depths of unexplored dungeons. A fierce struggle with a dangerous and unknown element leads to very deplorable consequences, reminding viewers not only of the beauty of the caves, but also of the threat to life lurking in their unknown.

The largest cave in the world is currently located in Vietnam, however, research in order to understand our world is carried out regularly and systematically, which means that unique finds will not keep you waiting. It is likely that very soon we will meet new natural phenomena, no less fantastic and beautiful than those already known to mankind.