Caves in the mountains. Creation of the Mammoth Cave National Park. Large and beautiful caves

Exploration of caves has been going on for years, expeditions find new and new natural formations. Some caves are recognized as beautiful, others are difficult to pass, there are the largest caves.

The longest cave in Russia

There are many caves in Russia, both dry and flooded. The Botovskaya cave is considered the longest. It is located near the village of Konoshalovo in the remote taiga. Irkutsk region. To date, more than sixty-eight kilometers of underground passages have been explored, but for a long time it was believed that the length of this natural object was about seven kilometers.

It was discovered by chance by a local hunter following the trail of a bear. In this cave there is a grotto in which there are lakes. The uniqueness of the Botovskaya cave is that it consists not only of limestone, as is most often the case in karst caves, but also from sandstone. The type of this object is horizontal.

The cave was first explored in 1947. It has about twelve thousand crossroads, many intricate passages. In 2013, the expedition discovered a map of this cave carved on a stone, which exactly repeats the moves. The size of this "map" is relatively large.


During the study of the passages, it became clear that the Botovskaya cave was visited more than once by researchers of the Neolithic era.

The opportunity to get into the cave appears only in winter, since it can only be reached by a tractor on the ice of the Lena River. The path on the ice is almost ninety kilometers.


But the longest underwater cave in Russia is recognized Orda cave. She is in Perm region eighty kilometers from the city of Kungur and got its name in honor of the nearby village of Orda. It was discovered when the high left bank of the Kungur River collapsed.


Scientists first explored the cave in 1993. It is a plaster horizontal labyrinth. Most of it is filled with water. The length of the cave is four kilometers six hundred meters. Being the largest water cave in Russia, it is in second position in Eurasia.

Large and beautiful caves

Since there are many caves in the world, some of the most beautiful and largest can be distinguished. Such is the caves of Zakynthos, located on Greek island with the same name. The caves reflect the color of the sky and the ocean. They are also called blue caves. Melessani cave, or as it is also called - the cave of the Nymphs, is also located in Greece.


In the southwestern part of Slovenia, there are the staggering Škocjan Caves. Underground halls and gorges are immense in form. In fact, this is a whole network of eleven caves.

In Chile Chico are the most beautiful marble caves. Surprisingly, they are entirely made of marble. The beauty of the naturally formed caves mesmerizes the visitors who come there.

In America, there is a National Park called Mammoth Cave. The park was founded in 1941 and is located in Central Kentucky. The cave system is recognized as the longest in the world.


It is impossible not to say about the caves of Cenoty Yucatan. They originated in the Yucatan Peninsula. Even the Mayans considered them sacred.

In 2000, the Crystal Cave was discovered in Mexico. Its second name is the Cave of Crystals. It contains many crystals of huge selenite. You can visit the cave only with special equipment, as it is located at a depth of three hundred meters, and with a humidity of ninety-nine percent, the air temperature there reaches fifty-eight degrees.

The most amazing and unique is the Romanian cave Movile. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a closed ecosystem. For five million years, it existed separately from the Earth's ecosystem. This was the reason why dozens of unknown plants and living beings were found in this cave. It was only opened in 1996.

On Borneo island Is the Ila National Park. There is a cave discovered in 1980, reaching a kilometer in length, two kilometers in width, its height is two hundred meters.


There is a cave in the US state of New Mexico large sizes- Big Room (Big room) or "Big room". Its length is five hundred and fifty meters, and its height is seventy-seven meters.

The largest cave in Vietnam

It is in Vietnam that the cave is located, which is recognized as the largest and most beautiful in the world. Its name is Hang Son Doong or Son Doong Cave. The location of this natural object is the province of Quang Binh, five hundred kilometers from Hanoi, near the border with Laos in the Phong Nha Kebang National Park.

Locals have known this huge cave since 1991, and speleologists discovered it in 2009. It was not easy to find her, as she is in the impenetrable jungle. Its width is one hundred meters. The length of Shondong has been studied for six and a half kilometers, while in some places the height reaches two hundred and forty meters.

The deepest cave in the world

Among all the caves in the world, the deepest is the Voronya Cave or the Krubera Cave, located in Abkhazia in the Gagra Range. The cave is branched, it has two branches. The depth of one is one kilometer three hundred meters, the other is two kilometers one hundred ninety-six meters.


The cave was discovered and explored for the first time in 1960. The last expedition dived in 2012. Each subsequent expedition tries to reach greater depth than the previous one.

Caves surprise not only with their size, but also with their beauty. But in Russia there are others Beautiful places. .
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Caves are a natural underground cavity accessible to human penetration. They are the object of study of the science of speleology. It is speleologists who make the greatest contribution to the study of caves. Some of the creations of nature amaze with their beauty, others with bizarre shapes, and others with their size.

Top 10 included largest caves in the world by length, volume or area occupied.

(Ukraine) opens the top ten largest caves. It is also the longest gypsum cave in the world. The explored area is 230 kilometers, but the cave itself is much longer. The rest of it has not yet been studied by researchers. The optimistic cave was discovered in 1966 by Lviv speleologists. Initially, it was assumed that its length was not more than 3 meters, but further persistent research showed that the cave is one of the longest in the world. It got its name due to the fact that skeptical speleologists to explore the cave called Lviv residents optimists. Since then, more than 200 expeditions have been made here.

(Abkhazia) is included in the list of the deepest caves in the world, which is located in the Arabica mountain range. It was discovered in 1990 by Sergei Shipitsin. The entrance to it is located at an altitude of 2150 meters above sea level. Maximum known depth Sarma is 1830 meters. The cave is formed by limestone and gypsum rocks. Many speleologists took part in her research. Among them are Rudko Pavel, Koreshnikov Evgeny, Plotnikov Vladimir, Osintsev Alexander, Sukhachev Vasily, Zakrepa Andrey, Safin Rafail, Bezverchiy Anatoly, Verbitsky Alexander, Kalachev Artem and many others.

(Abkhazia) - the deepest cave in the world, known to speleology. Its depth is 2.2 kilometers, and it is located in the Arabica mountain range in Georgia. The entrance to it is located at an altitude of 2250 meters above sea level. It is a sub-vertical type cave, consisting of a series of wells, which are interconnected by stiles and galleries. Another entrance to Krubera Voronja was opened in 2014 and is located at an altitude of 2253 meters above sea level. At a depth of two hundred meters, the cave branches into the Main and Nekuibyshev branches, which are the main ones. Then there are many not so big branches. Krubera-Voronya was first discovered in 1960 by a speleological expedition of the Institute of Geography. Vakhushti Bagrationi AN GSSR. In 2014, a team of speleologists opened a new entrance, located above the main one, which made it possible to set a new world record for the depth of the cave system, which became equal to 2199 meters.

(Mexico) - one of the largest caves in the world, almost completely flooded with water. Also included in the list of the longest caves in the world. Its total length is more than 317 kilometers, of which only 5 kilometers are not flooded. Speleologists began to study it in the second half of the 20th century.

(USA) recognized as the longest in the world. It is located in the US state of Kentucky, in the national park of the same name. Its length is more than 587 kilometers. In fact, the cave is much longer, but researchers have only studied this part so far. Now in this cave system 225 underground passages and about 20 huge halls are known. It got its name because of its impressive size. Pretty flows in one of the passages major river Echo, whose width is 60 meters and the depth is 10 meters. Mammoth Cave was formed about 10 million years ago. The Indians have known about its existence since ancient times. Subsequently, scientists discovered Indian burials in the cave. Its discovery by the Americans took place at the end of the 18th century.

(Russia, Crimea) is one of the longest caves, the length of which is 16 kilometers. Its area is 52 thousand square meters. m., and the volume - 200 thousand cubic meters. m. The Red Cave is located on about 30% of the territory of Crimea, and in terms of length it occupies about 19%.

(Austria) - the world's largest ice cave, where permafrost persists throughout the year. Its length is 42 kilometers and the depth is 407 meters. People have known about its existence for a long time, but in fact it was discovered in 1879 by the naturalist Anton von Posselt-Kzorich. The Salzburg speleologist Alexander von Mörk, who died during the World War (1914) and was buried in one of the Eisreisenwelt niches, took up the most thorough study of it. Currently, this cave is one of the most popular places for recreation. The first excursion here was made in 1920. About 150,000 tourists visit the Eisreisenwelt every year. Tours are held from May to October, but in winter time For a year, visiting the cave is prohibited due to the danger of avalanches.

(China) is one of the largest caves in the world in terms of volume. It was discovered in 1989 by a Sino-European expedition. Miao is located in the largest Gebihe cave system in China's Ziyun Getu He Chuandong National Park. You can get to Miao only through an underground stream. To determine the boundaries of the cave, the researchers used laser scanning. According to the data obtained during the study, the volume of Miao amounted to 10.78 million cubic meters. m.

(Malaysia) - a cave with the world's largest grotto Sarawak. The grotto is 600 meters long and 415 meters wide. It reaches a height of one hundred meters, and its area is 163 thousand cubic meters. m. The total volume of the grotto is 25 million cubic meters. m. It was discovered in 1981 by three English cavers who explored the karst massif in Gunung Mulu National Park. The British climbed up the river flowing out of the cave and ended up in a grotto, which could not be illuminated by the lanterns available to the researchers. The area of ​​the hall was so huge. Sarawak can accommodate 50 huge aircraft.

(Vietnam) - the most big cave in the world. It is located in the Vietnamese Phong Nha Kebang National Park, Quang Binh Province. Local residents learned about its existence back in 1991, and in 2009 it was discovered by a British group of speleologists. In some places Sondong reaches two hundred meters in height and one hundred and fifty meters in width. It is recognized as the cave with the highest and widest passages. Its volume is approximately equal to 38.5 million cubic meters. m. In places where light penetrates, grass and even trees grow.

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?

Your attention is presented to the 7 largest caves of the 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).

Built there national park, 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 all over the world. It is located in Mexico and is unique because she is filled giant crystals from plaster. 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 most large 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.

What could be better than mountains? Only mountains, you say. And you will be right. But there are still many wonders of nature, and they can be just under our feet.

As you probably already guessed, we will talk about caves. explore the depths underground resources- always interesting, unusual, albeit risky. Descending deep into the cave around various stalactites and other rocks in the midst of darkness is an indescribable feeling.

To inspire you to commune with nature, life guide prepared for you a short excursion to the most beautiful caves in the world:

Cave of Crystals (Mexico)

The cave, located in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, is known for huge crystals of a mineral called selenite. The very high temperature inside the cave greatly complicates the process of exploring it, even with special equipment it is possible to stay there for no more than 20 minutes. The cave was discovered by two brother miners Sanchez only in 2000, despite the fact that it had existed, presumably, for a couple of million years.

Glowworm Waitomo Cave (New Zealand)

Feeling the starry sky above your head - main feature this cave. Thousands of firefly larvae, found only in New Zealand, hang on the walls of the cave and give it that glowing effect.

Blue Grotto (Italy)

This grotto is located on the coast of the island of Capri, Italy. Known for its blue water, the grotto is very popular place among tourists. However, the only way to get there is by boat, and only when the weather is good.

Vatnajökull Ice Cave (Iceland)

Glaciers have been formed over the centuries due to the combination low temperatures air with a large amount of solid atmospheric precipitation. As a result of the absence of air bubbles in glaciers, when absorbed sunlight this cave takes on a beautiful azure blue hue, giving a "radiant effect precious stones". It is recommended to visit the cave in winter period due to the risk of melting water.

Cave Phraya Nakhon (Thailand)

One of the most beautiful caves in Thailand. It is located in the national Khao Park Roi Yot itself is in southern Thailand. The main attraction of this place is the Kuha Karuhas pavilion, built in 1890 by King Chulalongkorn. The cave was named after the ruler of the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat Phray Nakhon, who accidentally discovered it during a storm.

Marble Caves (Chile)

One of the most deep lakes on the planet - Lake General Carrera (from Chile), thanks to its clear blue water, adds beauty to these caves. And, despite the fact that the caves are called "marble", they are located on limestone islands.

Cave in Mutnovsky volcano (Russia)

At first glance, the existence of an ice cave inside a volcano may well seem strange. However, this is actually the case. While exploring the area around the Mutnovsky volcano, the cave was discovered by accident, which became absolutely incredible find. The light passing through the ceiling of the caves creates an amazing variety of colors in them.

Dongzhong Cave (China)

Dongzhong Chinese cave is located in Guizhou province. It was formed several thousand years ago, but since 1984 it has been used as ... an educational institution.

Fingal's Cave (Scotland)

Washed up in the rock sea ​​water, Fingal's Cave is located on the island of Staffa and is part of the Inland Hebrides. On its walls there are vertical basalt columns 69 m deep and 20 m high. Due to the curved vault, the cave has a unique acoustics.

Cave reed flute(China)

Located in the city of Guilin, this cave was named after the reeds growing around it. Modern lighting further emphasizes the beauty of the rocks formed inside.

Allison Cave (USA)

The cave is located in northeast Georgia. This perfect place for lovers of extreme sports and speleologists. Its depth reaches 179 m.

SAE Kyaut Cave (Myanmar)

At the entrance to this cave is located Buddhist temple It is also a favorite place for tourists.

Son Doong Cave (Vietnam)

The largest cave in the world is located in the Vietnamese province of Quang Binh. She became famous local residents since 1991. The total volume of the cave is estimated at 38.5 million m³.

Ice caves Eisriesenwelt (Austria)

The biggest ice caves were discovered at the end of the 19th century. The structure of the caves is constantly changing due to the ice that melts and then freezes again.

Cave Ordinskaya (Russia)

Ordinskaya Cave is the longest flooded cave in Russia and is ranked 25th among the longest gypsum caves in the world. Thanks to the clean clear water, this place is good for diving.

Carlsbad Caverns (USA)

They are located in New Mexico, in Carlsbad National Park. The caves were formed 4-6 million years ago as a result of the dissolution of limestone with sulfuric acid. They are remarkable for deposits of gypsum, silt and clay, which gave them this fantastic appearance.

Barton Creek Cave (Belize)

At first glance, an ordinary beautiful cave ... until you stumble upon some kind of skull. At one time, the Maya Indians performed their rituals and sacrifices there. Many artifacts that have survived from those times still lie among the cave formations.

Jeita Grotto (Lebanon)

Once you enter this cave, you will immediately understand why its name translates as "roar of water". At the bottom of the grotto, you will be deafened by the sounds of rushing water and air due to the loud echo. However, in the depths of the caves there is a profound silence that will allow you to admire it without any distractions.

Kango Caves (South Africa)

This is a network of limestone caves. Artifacts show that many of the main entrances to the cave served as dwellings for people of the middle and later stone ages. These caves are one of the biggest wonders of the African continent.

Aven Armand (France)

If you want to go underground to a depth of 100 m, then you are here. The cave is unique for its stalagmites (more than 400 types), including the largest known in the world, almost 30 m high. Of course, the symbol of France, no doubt, is the Eiffel Tower, but it’s still worth seeing the natural sculptures that are underground.

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