Located
in Arizona State Park, this show cave with 2.4 miles of passages was
discovered by local cavers in 1974. Long hidden from view, the caves are
carved out from limestone and filled with peleothems, which has been
growing for more than 50,000 years. Tours of the caves open to the
public include the Throne Room, where you can find the world’s longest
soda straw stalactites at 6.54 m and the Kublai Khan, a 58-foot high
column named after the poem. It also includes the Big Room, which
consists of the most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk in the
world, because it is a nursery roost for more than 1,000 cave bats.
Other caverns that can be accessed by the public include the Cul-de-sac
Passage, Mud Flats, Strawberry Room, and the Rotunda Room.
Situated
in the Precambrian limestones at the foothills of Swartberg range in
the Western Cape, South Africa, it is one of the country’s finest sites
for cave exploration and attracts a number of foreign visitors. The
caverns are composed of an extensive system of tunnels and chambers that
go on for nearly 4 km, though only a quarter of those are open to the
public. Some of the tours conducted by guides are the ‘Standard Tour,’
which can take an hour; while an ‘Adventure Tour’ can take an hour and
half as you crawl through narrow passages and climb over steep rocks
guided only by small flickering lights.
Named
after Thomas Harrison who owned the area in the early 1700s, Harrison
Cave was rediscovered in 1974 by Ole Sorensen, an engineer and cave
adventure enthusiast from Denmark and was later developed by the
government of Barbados as a show cave and attraction. The caves, which
were opened to the public in 1981, are formed naturally through water
erosion via the limestone rock. The guided tour usually starts at “The
Great Hall,” a huge cavern 100 ft in height; and is followed by a stop
at ”The Village,” where formations have joined to form columns after
thousands of years.
Located
in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico, this is a show cave that is
open all throughout the year except Christmas. To reach it, you can
either hike to the cave or take an elevator at the visitor center. It
includes a large cave chamber named the ‘Big Room,’ a natural limestone
formation that is almost 4,000 ft long, 625 ft wide, and 255 ft at its
highest point. This is considered the 3rd largest chamber in North
America and the 7th in the world.
Part
of the US National Park in central Kentucky, the Mammoth Cave has the
longest cave system in the world called the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave
System with over 365 miles of subterranean passageways. Established as a
national park on July 1, 1941, it also became a UNESCO World Heritage
Site (1981) and an International Biosphere Reserve (1990). Other
spectacular sights to see include the giant sinkhole aptly named ‘Cedar
Sink,’ and the ‘Frozen Niagara.’
Literally
means “in cave” in Chinese, this is not just an ordinary cave as
actually houses a school! Situated in Ziyun County in the province of
Guizhou in China, the enourmous cave opened as a school in 1984 with 186
students and 8 teachers. Carved out of the mountain by wind, water,
seismic shifts and other natural forces for thousands of years, it now
houses rooms, small buildings, and recreational areas for the students.
Located
in Dannevirke, New Zealand, the Fantasy cave has developed into a
year-round exhibit for the locals and tourists alike. Entirely
constructed and operated by volunteers, the displays are constantly
changed and replaced.
The
Phong Nha Cave, which is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, is located in the Minh Hoa districts in
north-central Vietnam, about 500 km south of Hanoi. The national park
was created to protect its over 300 caves and grottoes, aside from the
ecosystem and the limestone forest of the Annamite Range. Out of the 300
Phong Nha caves, only 20 of those have been surveyed by scientists.
With a total length of 126 km, it held several records including the
longest underground river and the largest caverns and passageways before
the discovery of Son Doong Cave.
A
natural cave in Belize near San Ignacio in the district Cayo, it is not
only a popular tourist destination but an archaeological site as well. A
single-passageway resurging stream with 6,400 meters of passages, there
is an indication that there can be an additional 6 km of passageways as
shown by the dry traces at sinking streams. An important archaeological
site, there was evidence that the first kilometer of the cave
passageway was used by Mayans due to a number of pottery shards that
have been discovered dating as far back 200 AD along with the remains of
28 humans.
A
protected cave system in Slovenia, the cave is just 2 miles long but
attracts year-round tourists and visitors. It consists of the Reka
River, which goes underground for an additional 21 miles and represents
one of the longest ‘karst’ underground wetlands in Europe. It became a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 and was lauded by the scientific
community as one of Earth’s natural treasures.
Located
near Miri, Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo, it is a cave attraction that is
part of the Gunung Mulu National Park. Also known by the locals as ‘Gua
Payau’ or ‘Gua Rusa,’ it received its name from the deer that came to
lick its salt-bearing rocks and used it as their shelter. First
discovered in 1961 by G.E. Wilford, it was further surveyed in 1978 to
determine its measurements of 174 m wide and 122m high, while the main
entrance measured at 146 m.
This
cave in Leasburg belongs to Missouri National Park, which was
established in 1982. Although it was first settled by people in the
1850s, it has a history of land disputes and vandalism. It is now
secured as a protected national park where cave tours, swimming,
fishing, picnicking and hiking are being offered at the visitor’s
center, which also has a nature museum. The Onondaga Cave boasts of
towering stalagmite, dripping stalactites and other active flowstones.
A
national park since 1971, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River
National Park is located in Palawan, Philippines. Also known as the St.
Paul Underground River, it is a part of the Saint Paul Mountain Range.
Aside from the underground river where visitors can explore the cave in a
boat, it was also discovered in 2010 that the underground river has a
second floor, indicating the presence of small waterfalls inside the
cave. It is composed of a huge 300-m cave dome; unbelievable rock
formations, and an underground river.
This
cave is located in the Selma Plateau, 1,380 m above sea level in the
Sultanate of Oman. Formed in fossilliferous carbonate rocks, it is the
9th largest cave chamber in the world. A single chamber alone measures
about 310 m by 225 m with a free-standing roof about 40 m thick. The
cave has a volume of 4,000,000 cubic meters, while its floor area is
about 58,000 square meters. Its deepest part is about 178 m below the
top of the highest entrance.
Eisriesenwelt,
the German word for “World of the Ice Giants,” is made from natural
limestone ice, which is located in Werfen, Austria. Found inside the
Hochkogel Mountain, a Tennengebirge section of the Alps, it is
considered the ‘largest ice cave in the world.’ Extending more than 42
km, it draws about 200,000 tourists each year due to the ice formations
of the cave, which were formed by thawing snow that drained into the
cave and froze during winter. During the chilly winter, the winds blow
into the cave and freezes the snow inside; while in summer, the cool
wind from inside the cave prevents it from melting.
Located
in Ellison Caves, east of Lafayette, Georgia, the Fantastic cave is 586
ft deep. Known as the deepest cave in the United States, it is big
enough to hold the Washington Monument.
A
landmark and a tourist attraction outside the city of Gullin in
Guangxi, China, its name was derived from the reeds growing inside the
cave that are ideal for flute making. It offers magnificent rock and
mineral formations, stone pillars, and carbon deposits. Illuminated by
different colored lights, it has been one of Gulin’s most interesting
tourists’ attractions for the past 1,200 years. Rediscovered in 1940s by
a group of refugees, this 180 years old cave has more than 70
inscriptions written in ink that date as far as 792 AD to the Tang
Dynasty.
A
famous sea cave on the coast of the island of Capri in Italy, the
sunlight that passes through the underwater cavity and shines through
the seawater creates a blue reflection that illuminates the cave.
The
Kverkfjöll ice cave, located in a frozen lagoon in Skattafel, Iceland,
is considered one of the most famous glacier caves in the world. Formed
by the hot water from a volcanic spring below Vatnajökull glacier, it
was discovered during an expedition in the 1980s.
The
location of some complex caves in southwestern France, it is more
famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings, which were discovered by a
teenager in the 1940s. The Paleolithic art, which is estimated to be
17,300 years old consists of images of large animals known to exist in
the area due to fossil evidence. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
in 1979, it was opened in 1948 but was closed down to the public until
1963 to preserve the art. The rooms in the cave that you can explore
include the Chamber of Felines, the Hall of the Bulls, the Apse, the
Nave, the Shaft, and the Passageway.
This
was just recently discovered in 2000 when scientists discovered the
chasm below after drilling an aquifer and pumping out tens of thousands
of gallons of water. A cave that is connected to the Naica Mine in
Chihuahua, Mexico, its crystal formations are mind bogglingly large and
measure over 30 feet in height and 4 feet in diameter. Formed due to the
water-source that is rich in calcium sulphate, it was heated by an
infusion of magma making the cave extremely hot and people can only
endure ten minutes of exposure with proper protection. This is also the
reason why most parts of the cave are unexplored.
A
cave at Waitomo on the north island of New Zealand, it is known for the
population of glowworms that are around the size of an average
mosquito. It is part of the Waitomo Cave system along with the Ruakuri
Cave and the Aranui Cave. Unique only to New Zealand, this is a must-see
for any traveler who can enjoy a boat ride amidst thousands of
glowworms illuminating the cave and be a part of over 120 years of
cultural and natural history.
A
sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa in Scotland, it was formed
entirely from hexagonally-jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene
lava flow. It is well-known for its naturally arched roof, which
produces eerie sounds made by the echoes of the waves to give the
atmosphere of a natural cathedral.
An
open airpit cave situated at the Municipality of Aquismon in Mexico, it
has freefall drop of 333 m from the floor of the cave to the lowest
side of the opening, with 370 m drop from the highest side. The 2nd
deepest pit in Mexico and the 11th in the world, a skyscraper like the
NYC Chrysler Building could easily fit. The cave has low temperatures
with thick vegetation at the mouth and rains can cause waterfalls to
cascade into its opening. Aside from the layers of debris and guano, you
can also find a sinkhole in a fault of the lower Cretaceous limestone,
which can go down further to 512 m.
Also
known as ‘La Cueva del Fantasma,’ this is an interesting cave located
in southern Venezuela. Situated in one of the most biologically rich and
geologically ancient parts of the world in the Aprada tepui, it is just
barely large enough to contain two helicopters. However, experts
believed that this is not actually a cave but a collapsed steep gorge.
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