Caves are this mysterious and magical world of the dark kingdom, silence and silence. And the caves can rightly be called the cradle of humanity. After all, in prehistoric times primitive people They used caves as a refuge from the wind and cold. They were the "discoverers" of natural dungeons. The tools and wall paintings of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons found in caves confirm this. In ancient times, some caves were considered the dwellings of the gods, others were used to shelter herds and, especially often, for burial. And in the recent past, there were cases when people who were at odds with society tried to hide in caves.
But even though the cave “cradle” was abandoned by man long ago, interest in the dungeons remained for many centuries. In the 18th century, the first expeditions began to study hard-to-reach caves.
Some historical facts:
In May 1748, the mathematician I. Nagel led an unprecedented descent into the Macocha chasm (Moravia) that was unprecedented at that time. He overcame the steep part of the entrance shaft (50 m) and reached a depth of 138 m. The theoretical ideas of this time are summarized in Citeaux de la Fond’s book “Wonders of Nature” (1788). He believed that underground voids arose “mostly through fire-breathing mountains,” and the deposits in caves represent “a kind of underground garden.” The views of Russian scientists were much closer to the truth, unfortunately they remained unknown in Western Europe. Back in 1720, V.N. Tatishchev visited the outskirts of the city of Kungur and pointed out that the caves were the result of “dilution” (dissolution) and collapse of rocks. In 1732, I. G. Gmelin visited the Kungur cave and drew up its plan. He also made the first measurements of air temperature underground.
M.V. Lomonosov made a great contribution to the formation of knowledge about the underground world. He proved that caves have a physicochemical nature, explained the formation of “scale” on the walls of caves by the deposition of calcite from an aqueous solution, proposed Russian equivalents of the Latin terms “stalactite” and “stalagmite” (“upper drip” and “lower drip”), substantiated causes of air movement underground and the formation of cave ice.
No cave in the world is like another. Huge halls with grottoes, wells, lakes, waterfalls and glaciers.
For thousands of years, water diligently eroded the stone and created underground labyrinths of a silent world of beauty and mysteries. Seeping into the cracks of limestone, rainwater destroys the stone from year to year, enlarging the cracks. For centuries, water saturated with minerals, dripping from the ceiling of caves, forms stalactites and stalagmites, sometimes such weird shape that they are given their own names.
Calcite in caves comes in the most unusual forms: in the form of flowers, pearls, twigs, sometimes so fragile and thin that they crumble when touched.
To this day, the deep labyrinths of caves attract people to plunge into their darkness and uncover underground secrets.
Let us, at least for a little while, also plunge into this mysterious world of the underground kingdom and get acquainted with its amazing beauties.
Han Son Doong Cave. Vietnam.
Hang Son Dung Cave (Mountain River Cave) is located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and was discovered in April 2009 by British speleologists. The cave system turned out to be huge. British researchers suggest that this cave is the largest in volume in the world!
In the underground hall of the Hang Son Dung cave there is enough space even for a 40-story skyscraper. The largest hall of the cave has a total length of more than 5000 meters. The total length of the cave is 9000 meters. The width of the halls and corridors is 100 meters, and the height reaches 200 meters. At the same time, the Deer Cave, located in Malaysia and one of the largest caves in the world, has a height of halls not exceeding 100 meters and a width of 90.
Hang Son Dong Cave - a jungle cave! In the vaults of the cave there are gaps through which light penetrates, and as a result of this, plants grow in the cave - the limestone ledges are covered with a carpet of delicate greenery. Following the plants, not only insects and snakes, but even monkeys and birds descend into the cave. The Rao Tuong River has created tunnels in solid rock over many centuries. During the dry months the river becomes a small stream, but during the rainy season the underground river becomes full again, so that in some places it comes to the surface of the earth.
The most big cave in the world. National Geographic film.
Cave of Swallows (Sotano de las Golondrinas). Mexico.
Sotano de las Golondrinas or Cave of Swallows is located in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. The entrance to the cave is a huge hole in the mountain with a diameter of 55 meters. When descending into the neck of the cave, after a few meters there is an expansion to 160 meters, which creates difficulties during the descent and ascent. This is what attracts fans of extreme sports here. The cave is one of the deepest caves in Mexico, its depth reaches 376 meters, which is comparable to the height of a 120-story building. The floor of the Swallow Cave is sloped and has many narrow tunnels and passages that lead to deeper levels. To date, they have not been particularly well studied.
The cave got its name due to the huge colony of swallows that live here. And in order not to disturb the quiet life of birds, descents into the cave are allowed only at certain times: from 12 to 16 hours, when the birds leave it. In addition, this saves not only the lives of swallows, but also those who enjoy extreme skydiving. After all, a collision with a flock of birds during a free flight is very dangerous.
Recently, the Swallow Cave has become a real Mecca for speleologists and base jumpers.
Cave of Giant Crystals (Cueva de los Cristales). Mexico.
The Cave of Crystals (Cueva de los Cristales) is located in the Naica mine complex, in the Mexican desert of the state of Chihuahua at a depth of 300 meters. The cave is unique in that it contains giant crystals of selenite (a mineral, a type of gypsum). These are the largest natural crystals ever found on the planet - the transparent gypsum rays reach sizes of 11 meters in length and weigh about 55 tons.
The cave was discovered in 2000 while digging a tunnel in the mine complex. The climate in the cave is unusual - it is very hot in the cave! Temperatures reach 50-60°C with a humidity of more than 90%; a person can stay in such conditions without a special suit for more than ten minutes. Access to the cave is open only to scientists exploring it in special equipment.
In the cave of crystals. National Geographic film.
Fingal's Singing Cave. Scotland.
Fingal's Cave is located on the southwestern coast of Staffa Island (one of the Hybrid Islands). The island is only 1 kilometer long and half a kilometer wide. Over many millennia, the sea surf and rains have carved out a whole system of caves, the largest of which is the singing cave of Fingal, which received its name in honor of the hero of the Irish and Gaelic epic, the giant Fingal.
The walls of Fingal's Cave are made up of vertical hexagonal basalt columns. The length of the cave is 75 meters, height 20 meters and width 14 meters. In Gaelic the cave is called Uamh-Binn, which can be translated as "cave of melody". Indeed, thanks to the dome-like arch, this place has unique acoustics. In calm weather, the waves of the sea produce peculiar melodic sounds in the cave, in a storm and during sea tides - a loud noise that can be heard for several miles.
The cave has a large arched entrance; you can get into it along a narrow path lined with fragments of basalt columns.
The Gouffre Berger cave is located on the Sornen plateau in the French Alps. The name of the cave comes from the Latin word "gufr", which means "abyss", and the name of the scientist Joseph Berger, who discovered it in 1953. This is the first cave to be explored to a depth of more than one kilometer and until 1963 was considered the deepest cave in the world. Its depth is 1271 meters, which is comparable to the height of two Ostankino towers placed on top of each other, and the length of the passages is over 30 kilometers. Today the cave ranks 23rd in depth in the world and 4th in France. However, to this day it is a popular place for speleologists who want to test their skills at a depth of several hundred meters. This cave is technically very difficult. For example, it can take from 15 to 30 hours to rise from the very bottom to the surface. In addition, floods often occur here. Over the past few years, 6 people have died in Berge, five of whom drowned.
Three Bridge Chasm is a limestone cave of the Jurassic period. The Baatara waterfall will fall into its abyss, from a height of 255 meters. This unusual place is located in Lebanon. It was discovered by French bio-spelunker Henri Coiffait in 1952. The cave owes its name to the fact that as it falls into the valley, the stream passes through three natural bridges, each of which hangs over the other. The age of the cave reaches 160 million years! For thousands of years, water from the stream slowly washed the limestone and gradually destroyed the cave arches. After the appearance of the upper bridge, it was destroyed for a long time by vertical and circular erosion, which, in combination with a series of collapses, created the middle and lower bridges.
Even today, the formation of the cave is not complete - and it will not be completed as long as the water flows.
Volcanic cave Cueva de los Verdes. Canary Islands (Spain).
The Cueva de los Verdes cave was formed about five thousand years ago as a result of the eruption of the Corona volcano. When the lava rushed to the ocean, forming the so-called “lava tube” - a tunnel more than 6 kilometers long, one of the longest on the planet.
The lava flow outside was cooled by air and solidified, creating the walls and roof of the tunnel, while molten magma continued to flow inside. This is how it turned out to be volcanic Cueva de los Verdes cave. The hot gases released from the lava, mixing with air, ignited; Under the influence high temperature, melting the vault, grooves and swells similar to stalactites appeared on the ceiling of the cave. The remains of the lava, as it solidified, formed many folds and wrinkles, decorating the floor of the cave with intricate patterns.
The cave stretches in the form of a tunnel for 6.1 kilometers from the crater of the volcano to the seashore; the difference is 230 meters. The width of the cave reaches 24 meters, height - up to 15 meters. The air temperature in the cave remains constant throughout the year: 19°C.
The cave has two tiers - the upper, more spacious one, on which there is a concert hall with excellent natural acoustics, which is periodically used for its intended purpose.
At the bottom of the cave, called Jameos del Agua, there is an underground lake.
Ice cave Skaftafell. Iceland.
Ice caves are temporary structures that appear at the edge of glaciers. Such caves have a relatively short lifespan and can be destroyed at any moment. Ice caves are only tens of years old. But they look amazingly beautiful from the inside. One of these caves is located in the Skaftafell Nature Park in Iceland.
Skaftafell Cave was formed in a glacier as a result of melting ice. Melt water together with rain, having collected on the surface of the glacier, rushed into the cracks in streams, penetrating inside and forming peculiar tunnels. Sunlight, penetrating through the ice, gives the cave an unusual blue color.
A seven-meter ice tunnel leads into the Skaftafell cave, which gradually narrows to 1 meter.
Ice caves are in a constant state of transformation and can be destroyed at any time. It is safe to visit them only in winter, when severe sub-zero temperatures harden the ice. And even in this case, while inside the cave, you can hear a very frequent crackling sound. This sound does not arise from the fact that the cave is ready to collapse, but because the cave moves along with the glacier itself at a certain speed, sometimes reaching 1 meter per day. Every time the glacier moves and comes into contact with solid rock, you can hear this loud, scary grinding sound.
Marble caves. Chile.
Marble Caves are one of the most beautiful places in Patagonia. They are bright blue grottoes filled with water from Lake Carrera. The lake is located
Partially submerged by the lake's turquoise water, the caves can be explored by small boat or kayak. There are three main grottoes in the caves: the Chapel (La capillaries), the Cathedral (El Catedral) and the Cave (Cueva).
Today it is rare and amazing miracle nature is under threat due to plans to build five large dams in the region.
Video. Marble Caves, Patagonia, Chile.
Vardzia is a cave monastery complex of the 12th-13th centuries, located in the south of Georgia, on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Vardzia is a real underground city with many tunnels, stairs and alleys. Located in the valley of the Kura (Mtkvari) river in the steep tuff wall of Mount Erusheti (Bear). Inside the rock there was a place not only for a monastery, but also for several libraries, baths and many residential buildings. A total of 13 levels were built, with natural caves expanded to accommodate 6,000 monks and refugees. Numbers over 600 various rooms, which stretch along the mountain for a distance of more than a kilometer, and the entire underground complex goes 50 meters deep into the rock. Secret passages connecting the premises, the remains of the water supply and irrigation system have been preserved.
A little history:
The ensemble of the Vardzia Monastery was created mainly in 1156-1205, during the reign of George III and his daughter Queen Tamara. Located on the southwestern border of Georgia, the monastery-fortress blocked the Kura River gorge to the invasion of Iranians and Turks from the south. At that time, all the premises of the monastery were hidden by a rock; they were connected to the surface only by three underground passages, through which large detachments of soldiers could appear completely unexpectedly for the enemy. In 1193-1195, during the war with the Seljuk Turks, Queen Tamara was with her court in Vardzia.
The cave city did not last long - a year after construction, the earthquake of 1283 almost completely destroyed it. It was so powerful that it damaged the cave system, causing them to collapse and cascade down Mount Erushelhi. Two-thirds of the hidden city was destroyed, revealing a secret world within the mountain. However, the monastery did not give up. It functioned until 1551, but then it was attacked by the Persian khan Sash Tahmasp, who killed all the monks. It was then that Vardzia became empty.
For a long time, the cave city was abandoned, but at the end of the last century, Vardzia was restored again, and monastic life resumed there. Currently in the monastery ancient city About 10-15 monks live there.
When compiling the review, photographs were used from the Internet, descriptions were translated from local sites where the photographs were found.
A cave is a cavity in the upper part of the earth's crust, connected to the surface by one or more entrance holes. Another definition: a cave is a natural underground cavity accessible to human penetration, having parts not illuminated by sunlight and a length (depth) greater than the other two dimensions. The largest caves are complex systems passages and halls, often with a total length of up to several tens of kilometers. Caves are an object of study for speleology. Speleotourists make a significant contribution to the study of caves.
Caves according to their origin can be divided into five groups: tectonic, erosion, glacial, volcanic and, finally, the largest group - karst. The caves in the entrance area, with suitable morphology (horizontal spacious entrance) and location (close to water), were used by ancient people as comfortable dwellings.
Caves by origin
Karst caves
Most of these caves are like this. It is karst caves that have the greatest extent and depth. Karst caves are formed due to the dissolution of rocks by water, so they are found only where soluble rocks occur: limestone, marble, dolomite, chalk, as well as gypsum and salt. Limestone, and especially marble, dissolves very poorly in pure distilled water. Solubility increases several times if there is a dissolved solution in water. carbon dioxide(and it is always present in natural water), however, limestone still dissolves poorly compared to, say, gypsum or, especially, salt. But it turns out that this has a positive effect on the formation of extended caves, since gypsum and salt caves not only form quickly, but also quickly collapse.
Tectonic cracks and faults play a huge role in the formation of caves. From the maps of the studied caves one can often see that the passages are confined to tectonic disturbances that can be traced on the surface. Also, for the formation of a cave, a sufficient amount of water precipitation is necessary, a favorable form of relief: precipitation with large area should fall into the cave, the entrance to the cave should be located noticeably above the place where the groundwater is discharged, etc.
Many karst caves are relict systems: the water flow that formed the cave left it due to changes in the topography either to deeper levels (due to a decrease in the local basis of erosion - the bottom of neighboring river valleys), or stopped flowing into the cave due to changes in the surface catchment, after which the cave goes through various phases of aging. Very often, the caves studied are small fragments of an ancient cave system, exposed by the destruction of the host mountain ranges.
The evolution of karst processes and their chemistry are such that often water, having dissolved the mineral substances of rocks (carbonates, sulfates), after some time deposits them on the vaults and walls of caves in the form of massive crusts up to a meter thick or more (cave marble onyx) or special for each cave of ensembles of mineral aggregates of caves, forming stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, draperies and other specific karst mineral forms - sinter formations.
Recently, more and more caves have been opening in rocks that were traditionally considered non-karst. For example, in the sandstones and quartzites of the tepui table mountains of South America, the Abismo Gai Collet caves, with a depth of −671 m (2006), and Cueva Ojos de Cristal, with a length of 16 km (2009), were discovered. Apparently, these caves are also of karst origin. In hot tropical climates, under certain conditions, quartzite can be dissolved by water.
Another exotic example of the formation of karst caves is the very long and deepest Lechugia Cave in the US mainland (and other caves in Carlsbad National Park). According to the modern hypothesis, it was formed by the dissolution of limestone by rising thermal waters saturated with sulfuric acid.
Tectonic caves
Such caves can appear in any rock as a result of the formation of tectonic faults. As a rule, such caves are found on the sides of river valleys deeply cut into the plateau, when huge masses of rock break off from the sides, forming subsidence cracks (sherlops). Subsidence cracks usually converge like a wedge with depth. Most often they are filled with loose sediments from the surface of the massif, but sometimes they form quite deep vertical caves up to 100 m deep. Sherlops are widespread in Eastern Siberia. They have been studied relatively poorly and are probably quite common.
Erosion caves
Caves formed in insoluble rocks due to mechanical erosion, that is, worked through by water containing grains of solid material. Often such caves are formed on the seashore under the influence of the surf, but they are small. However, the formation of caves is also possible, excavated along primary tectonic cracks by streams going underground. Quite large (hundreds of meters long) erosion caves formed in sandstones and even granites are known. Examples of large erosion caves include T.S.O.D. (Touchy Sword of Damocles) Cave in gabbro (4 km/−51 m, New York), Bat Cave in gneisses (1.7 km, North Carolina), Upper Millerton Lake Cave in granites (California).
Glacial caves
Caves formed in the body of glaciers by melt water. Such caves are found on many glaciers. Melted glacial waters are absorbed by the glacier body along large cracks or at the intersection of cracks, forming passages that are sometimes passable for humans. The length of such caves can be several hundred meters, depth - up to 100 m or more. In 1993, a giant glacial well “Isortog” with a depth of 173 m was discovered and explored in Greenland; the influx of water into it in summer was 30 m³ or more. 
Another type of glacial caves are caves formed in a glacier at the point of release of intraglacial and subglacial waters at the edge of the glaciers. Melt water in such caves they can flow both on the glacier bed and on glacial ice.
A special type of glacial caves are caves formed in glaciers at the exit of underground waters located under the glacier. thermal waters. Hot water is capable of making voluminous galleries, however, such caves do not lie in the glacier itself, but under it, since the ice melts from below. Thermal glacial caves are found in Iceland and Greenland and reach significant sizes.
Volcanic caves
These caves appear during volcanic eruptions. The lava flow, as it cools, becomes covered with a hard crust, forming a lava tube, inside which molten rock still flows. After the eruption has actually ended, the lava flows out of the tube from the lower end, and a cavity remains inside the tube. It is clear that lava caves lie on the very surface, and often the roof collapses. However, as it turned out, lava caves can reach very large sizes, up to 65.6 km in length and 1100 m in depth (Kazumura Cave, Hawaiian Islands). 
In addition to lava tubes, there are vertical volcanic caves - volcanic vents.
Caves by type of host rock
The longest cave in the world, Mammoth Cave (USA), is a karst cave built in limestone. It has a total length of passages of more than 600 km. The longest cave in Russia is the Botovskaya cave, over 60 km long, laid in a relatively thin layer of limestone, sandwiched between sandstones, located in the Irkutsk region, river basin. Lena. Slightly inferior to it is Bolshaya Oreshnaya - the world's longest karst cave in conglomerates in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The longest cave in gypsum is Optimisticheskaya, in Ukraine, with a length of more than 230 km. The formation of such extended caves in gypsum is associated with a special arrangement of rocks: the layers of gypsum containing the cave are covered with limestone on top, due to which the vaults do not collapse. There are known caves in rock salt, in glaciers, in solidified lava, etc.
Caves by size
The deepest caves on the planet are also karst: Krubera-Voronya (up to −2196 m), Snezhnaya (−1753 m) in Abkhazia. In Russia, the deepest cave is Gorlo Barloga (−900 m) in Karachay-Cherkessia. All these records are constantly changing, but only one thing remains constant: karst caves are in the lead. 
The deepest caves in the world
The depth of a cave is the difference in height between the entrance (the highest of the entrances, if there are several of them) and the lowest point of the cave. If there are passages in a cave located above the entrance, the concept of amplitude is used - the difference in levels between the lowest and highest points of the cave. According to estimates, the maximum depth of cave passages below the surface (not to be confused with the depth of the cave!) can be no more than 3000 meters: any deeper cave would be crushed by the weight of the overlying rocks. For karst caves, the maximum depth is determined by the karst base (the lower limit of karst processes, coinciding with the base of the limestone strata), which can be lower than the erosion base due to the presence of siphon channels. The deepest cave is currently the Krubera-Voronya cave with a depth of 2196 m, this is the first and only cave that has crossed the 2 km mark. The first cave to be explored with a depth of more than 1000 meters was the French Berger Chasm, which was considered the deepest in the world from its discovery in 1953 until 1963.
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Depth, m |
Location |
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| 1 | Krubera-Voronya | |||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | ||||
| 4 |
Lamprechtsofen |
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| 5 |
Mirolda |
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| 6 |
Jean-Bernard |
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| 7 |
Torca del Cerro |
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| 8 |
Pantyukhinskaya |
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| 9 |
Sima de la Corniza |
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| 10 |
Slovenia |
The longest caves in the world
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Depth, m |
Location |
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| 1 |
Mamontova |
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| 2 | ||||
| 3 |
Ox-Bel-Ha |
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| 4 |
Optimistic |
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| 5 | ||||
| 6 | ||||
| 7 |
Sak-Actun |
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| 8 |
Switzerland |
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| 9 |
Fisher Ridge |
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| 10 |
Gua-Air-Jernich |
Malaysia |
Contents of the caves
Speleofauna
Although the living world of caves, as a rule, is not very rich (except for the entrance part, where sunlight), however, some animals live specifically in caves or even only in caves. First of all, these are bats; many of their species use caves as daily shelter or for wintering. Moreover, bats sometimes fly into very remote and hard-to-reach corners, perfectly navigating the narrow labyrinthine passages.
In addition to bats, some caves in warm climates are home to several species of insects, spiders (Neoleptoneta myopica), shrimp (Palaemonias alabamae) and other crustaceans, salamanders and fish (Amblyopsidae). Cave species adapt to complete darkness, and many of them lose their organs of vision and pigmentation. These species are often very rare, many of them endemic.
Archaeological finds
Prehistoric people used caves all over the world as homes. Even more often, animals settled in caves. Many animals died in trap caves starting from vertical wells. The extremely slow evolution of caves, their constant climate, and protection from the outside world have preserved a huge number of archaeological finds to us. This is pollen from fossil plants, bones of long-extinct animals (cave bear, cave hyena, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros), rock paintings of ancient people (Kapova caves on Southern Urals, Divya in the Northern Urals, Tuzuksu in Kuznetsk Alatau, Niah-Caves in Malaysia), tools of their labor (Strashnaya, Okladnikova, Kaminnaya in Altai), human remains of different cultures, including Neanderthals, up to 50-200 thousand years old (Teshik-Tash cave in Uzbekistan, Denisova Cave in Altai, Cro-Magnon in France and many others).
The caves may have served as modern cinemas.
Water in caves
Water is usually found in many caves, and karst caves owe their origin to it. In caves you can find condensation films, drops, streams and rivers, lakes and waterfalls. Siphons in caves significantly complicate passage and require special equipment and special training. Underwater caves are often found. In the entrance areas of caves, water is often present in a frozen state, in the form of ice deposits, often very significant and perennial.
Air in caves
In most caves, the air is breathable due to natural circulation, although there are caves in which you can only be in gas masks. For example, guano deposits can poison the air. However, in the vast majority of natural caves, air exchange with the surface is quite intense. The reasons for air movement are most often the temperature difference in the cave and on the surface, so the direction and intensity of circulation depend on the time of year and weather conditions. In large cavities, the air movement is so intense that it turns into wind. For this reason, air draft is one of the important signs when searching for new caves.
Cave deposits
There are mechanical (clay, sand, pebbles, blocks) and chemogenic deposits (stalactites, stalagmites, etc.). In cave systems with an active watercourse, as a rule, mechanical deposits are presented in the form of blocky rubble, often of very large volumes, formed as a result of the collapse of the arch of passages, which is formed by dissolution of the water flow. Rubbles are difficult to pass and dangerous, since the balance of a blocky rubble is often unstable. Clay deposits are widely represented in galleries that were abandoned by an active watercourse that carried out mechanically insoluble rock particles. The soluble component of the cave's limestone is calcium carbonate, which often makes up only about 50% of the rock. The remaining minerals, as a rule, are insoluble, and if the water dissolving the rock is presented in the form of a drop, an infiltrate, with low water flow, unable to provide mechanical transport of particles, the accumulation of clay deposits begins. Very often ancient passages are completely blocked by clay.
Chemogenic deposits (sinter formations) also usually decorate the ancient galleries of the cave, where water, slowly filtering through cracks in the limestone, is saturated with calcium carbonate, and when it enters the cave cavities, due to a slight change in the partial pressure of water vapor when a drop comes off, or when When it falls on the floor, or when turbulence occurs during draining, calcium carbonate crystallizes from the saturated solution in the form of calcite.
Excursion caves
Some caves are equipped for visiting by excursion groups (so-called showcaves). To do this, in the part of the cave that is most spacious and rich in sinter formations, pedestrian paths, ladders, bridges are laid, and electric lighting is created; in some cases, if the entrance part of the cave is a technically difficult area, tunnels are made. In the territory former USSR The most famous caves are Mramornaya in Crimea, Kungurskaya in the Urals, and Novoafonskaya in Abkhazia. 
Caves in the Solar System
In addition to the Earth, caves have been discovered on the Moon and Mars. Apparently, these are volcanic caves, ancient traces of volcanic activity.
Artificial caves
Caves - dungeons of the industrial world
Beneath any major city is a dungeon system. technical purpose: basements of above-ground buildings, metro, life support systems (plumbing, heating, sewerage, electrical and telephone cables, fiber optic network), bomb shelters, bunkers in case of war, etc.
The cave is like the dwelling of holy ascetics
Many holy ascetics built their homes in the caves. Later, monasteries and Lavras were founded on these places:
- Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
- Pskov-Pechersky Monastery
- Holy Dormition Cave Monastery (Crimea)
- Kholkovsky Monastery
- Chelter-Koba
- Basarbovsky Monastery
- Cave churches in Ivanovo
Holy ascetics who lived in caves:
- “And Lot went out from Zoar and began to live in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. And he lived in a cave, and his two daughters with him" (Genesis 19.30)
- “And he the Prophet Elijah entered a cave there and spent the night in it” (3rd Book of Kings 19.9)
- Hilarion of Kyiv
- Anthony Pechersky
- Varlaam Pechersky
Caves-houses
Many peoples built their homes in caves, as they were easy to keep clean and maintain a constant temperature throughout the year.
- Cappadocia
- Anasazi
- Guadiz
- Sassy Di Matera
Medicinal caves
In many medical institutions There are rooms called “salt caves”. The walls are lined with potassium salt bricks, and patients spend some time in them, listening to music and receiving a healing effect.
Entertaining caves
There are well-known caves of horror as part of amusement parks, cafes and bars decorated to look like caves.
Caves in mythology, mysticism and religion.
V. G. Ivanchenko wrote about the symbolic and mystical meaning of caves in his article “The Sign of the Cave”, published in the magazine “Orientation”.
Caves in art, literature and film
Caves appear in many fantasy works (both fantasy and science fiction). Caves (more precisely, bunkers) in science fiction mainly serve as shelters after a global catastrophe that has made life on the surface impossible. And also caves in fantasy are inhabited by: gnomes, kobolds, goblins, dragons, and in Russian folk tales“The Mistress of the Copper Mountain,” the Serpent Gorynych, lives there. In northern mythology, Sirtya live in caves. One of the most famous literary heroes who ended up in the caves was: Tom Sawyer, along with Becky Thatcher, Bilbo Baggins. 
Underground cavities
In addition to caves that have access to the surface and are accessible to direct study by humans, earth's crust there are closed underground cavities. The deepest underground cavity (2952 meters) was discovered by drilling on the coast of Cuba. In the Rhodope Mountains, an underground cavity was discovered at a depth of 2400 meters during drilling. On the Black Sea coast in Gagra, underground voids were discovered by drilling at a depth of up to 2300 meters.
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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 large domed halls. Located 80 km from Bowling Green, Kentucky, the cave contains one of the world's largest underground tunnel systems, which is why it is included in the list World Heritage UNESCO. Mysterious sinkholes, underground waterfalls and cave formations in gypsum karst attract many visitors. Nobody knows yet true dimensions Mammoth cave. New caves and passages are constantly opening up, the underground boundaries of this spectacular labyrinth expanding deeper and deeper into the depths of the 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 remain the longest in the world with a margin of 160 km!
People have entered 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 still growing nearby. The charred remains of these ancient torches were 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 boulder. The human body and clothing are well preserved.
The cave has been known to Indian tribes since time immemorial. 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 Houchine or his brother Francis Houchine. In 1797, while hunting, Houchin pursued a wounded bear and discovered the entrance to a cave near the Green River.
Then in 1798, Valentine Simon acquired the cave for development and mining potassium nitrate. As a result of the Anglo-American War of 1812-1814, prices for saltpeter skyrocketed. During the War of 1812, the cave served as an important source of saltpeter, which was extracted using labor mainly from the black population of America. Saltpeter production 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 the war effort was mined from Mammoth Cave. Its owners relied on the labor of 70 African slaves to extract this valuable mineral.
Next Mammoth Cave by entrepreneurs Charles Wilkins and Hyman Gratz for industrial production saltpeter and calcium nitrate was purchased. But the war ended and, as a result of the decline in demand for saltpeter, prices began to fall, which made the extraction of saltpeter extremely unprofitable. The mining and production of saltpeter was stopped, and the cave was turned into a tourist attraction of local importance, and subsequently of global significance. 
At the end of the war in 1815, prices for saltpeter fell sharply, and its extraction became unprofitable. However, people who learned about the cave began to visit it to see with their own eyes the enormous size of this underground miracle. In the following decades, the cave became 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 to the cave. Bishop made attempts to explore the cave, which were fairly successful. AND Bishop became the first explorer of the cave. Bishop discovered many interesting and beautiful places in the cave, to which he also gave his names. Bishop was the first to successfully cross the so-called. Bottomless pit. After which Bishop concluded that the cave has a much greater extent than previously thought. Subsequently, Bishop compiled a map, which included more than 16 kilometers of routes he laid out. This map was the only guide to Mammoth Cave for 40 years. 
Stephen Bishop turned out to be a talented explorer and guide. He made many discoveries that increased the cave's popularity over the next decade. Stephen became the first person to cross the Bottomless Pit - big hole depth over 30 meters. 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 slaves, including Bishop, from Gorin. John Krogan made attempts to turn the caves into a medical and preventive hospital, but without much success.
Dr. Krogan was interested in possible healing properties caves. He believed that the cave's constant temperature and humidity could be beneficial for people suffering from tuberculosis. In the spring of 1842, he housed those suffering from this disease in wooden and stone houses built in the center of the cave. Visitors from that period spoke of the constant coughing they heard from patients living in these houses. In 1843, the experiment ended in complete failure. Several patients died and the condition of others worsened. It's obvious that high humidity inside the cave and the low temperature only harmed, and did not help, sick people. Two stone houses are still preserved in Mammoth Cave as a memory of this experiment. Ironically, Dr. Croghan himself died from this serious 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 construction of transport arteries to nearby cities at the end of the 19th century, it made it possible for tourists to visit the caves. This is what later made the Mammoth Cave an important tourist attraction. USA.
In the 1920s and 1930s, attempts were made, which were subsequently crowned with success, to acquire land holdings around the cave. And thanks to these efforts, both on the part of the authorities and on the part of interested citizens, the Mammoth Cave National Park was created in 1941.
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, Kristalnaya, Neizvestnaya and Solyonaya, are part of one karst cave system. In 1972, a speleological expedition that conducted research in Mammoth Cave, based on its research, concluded that Mammoth Cave was connected to the nearby Flint Ridge cave system. This means that all the caves in this area are nothing more than one whole cave system.
Kentucky Cave Wars
Difficulties in management Agriculture on infertile, poor soils was the reason for the desire of the owners of small caves located near Mamontovaya 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 money from tourism.
A widespread practice of deception was used to lure tourists into other small caves. Fake road signs were installed along the roads leading to Mammoth Cave, misleading tourists and directing them to other caves. The owners of these small caves made visitors think that they had visited Mamontova, when in reality it was a completely different cave. A typical strategy at the initial stage of the emergence of automobile travel was that the capper (a person luring simpletons), jumping on the step of a passing tourist’s car, convinced passengers that Mammoth Cave was closed, quarantined, collapsed, in a word, inaccessible for visiting and suggested they visit another cave.
Creation of Mammoth Cave National Park
After Dr. Krogan's death, his nephews and nieces held the cave as trustees until the last of his 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 Dr. Krogan's last heir, a movement spread among wealthy residents of Kentucky to create a national park on the territory of the cave. Citizens of the state formed a public organization Association National Park Mammoth cave. 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 reality, the national park project proved difficult because, unlike parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite, the area around Mammoth Cave was occupied by farmers and local businesses, many of whom were unwilling to leave their lands and opposed the creation of a national park. parka.
On May 25, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation creating Mammoth Cave National Park. The law made the creation of the park contingent on donations of land to the federal government.
Some farm lands were acquired using donations from wealthy citizens, while other plots of land were acquired under the state's legal right to alienate private property. Unlike the formation of other US national parks in sparsely populated areas of the country, thousands of people were forced to forcibly 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 were also forced to leave the area.
Mammoth Cave National Park was officially opened on July 1, 1941 to "protect the unique underground labyrinth, the rolling hills above, and the Green River Valley."
How was the cave formed?
An ancient sea covered the central part of the modern United States 325 million years ago, depositing more than 180 meters of soluble limestone, later covered by a layer of sandstones and shales deposited by an ancient river. The top layer covered the bottom like an umbrella. The sea and river disappeared, and the forces of erosion eroded this top layer about 10 million years ago, when cracks and holes exposed the limestones outward. Geologists believe that the old part of 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 a labyrinth of passages, amphitheatres, rooms and voids that we know as Mammoth Cave.
Many internal features, such as stalagmites, stalactites and columns, formed at a 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 enormous size of the labyrinth and passage systems, and has nothing to do with the mammoth. Any information about the discovery of mammoth remains here is untrue.
How long is 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 they often say, “there is no end in sight.” Professional speleologists continue to study the cave system, compiling new maps and discovering new passages, many of which constitute difficult-to-reach corridors.
The bats
Mammoth Cave once had a population of 9-12 million bats in its historical section alone. Although bats continue to live in the cave, today their numbers do not exceed several thousand. Now ecologists are working on a program to restore the bat population.
Tourism and attractions of Mammoth Cave
The US National Park Service offers visitors a number of cave tours. Tours last from one to six hours. Two excursions are conducted using only paraffin lamps, and are a popular alternative to the electrically lit routes. Several "wild" tours veer away from the well-developed parts of the cave and lead into dusty tunnels.
The park's tours are distinguished by the quality of their explanatory programs. Tourist information varies depending on the tour chosen, so by taking multiple tours, tourists will learn about different aspects of the cave's formation and history.
The six-hour tour is most popular among tourists. The groups pass through Cleveland Avenue, which is a long cylindrical hall carved out by underground water. Its walls shine with white plaster, crystallized under a layer of limestone. The route then passes through the Snowball Dining Room, where you can stop and grab a bite to eat. The tour then proceeds through Boone Avenue, a deep ravine so narrow in width that you can easily touch the opposite walls of the passage with both hands. The tour ends at Frozen Niagara. Water saturated with minerals, seeping through the rock, gradually formed Frozen Niagara, a characteristic feature of which is the presence of stalactites, stalagmites, images of stone waves on the walls, simulating the fall of water.
One part of Mammoth Cave is called the Methodist Church, where religious ceremonies are believed to have been 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 with their own eyes what the cave looked like before electric lighting was installed here.
Booth Amphitheater is another famous site of Mammoth Cave and was visited by actor Edwin Booth. brother Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. Edwin Booth is said to have read Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy at this location.
Nearby is deep hole in the land known as the Bottomless Pit. It was named by the first guides of the cave, unable to see its bottom through the weak 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 out from the middle of the cave.
The once most famous and popular Eco River Tour, during which tourists had the opportunity to ride a boat on an underground river, was canceled in the early 1990s due to environmental reasons. In addition, maintaining the cave passages for public viewing, subject to periodic floods, was incredibly expensive. During the season, tourists are offered a cave tour that allows them to see the underground river.
Visitors to the national park rarely see more than 20 km of passages available for excursions. If you have free time, you can explore the cave on your own. Other activities include hiking and horseback riding in the park's more than 112 km2 of surface area, fishing and boating on the Green River.
The park's peak tourist season is 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, which explains the absence stalactites, stalagmites and other sinter formations. But in some places, thanks to erosion and cracks, water still penetrates into the cave, forming beautiful panoramas, for example in the “Frozen Niagara” hall. Water, accumulating at 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, frequent tourist boat excursions were held on the river, but were subsequently discontinued due to financial difficulties and environmental concerns.
Research into caves has been going on for years, with expeditions finding more and more natural formations. Some caves are considered beautiful, others are difficult to navigate, and there are some of 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 of the 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 is about seven kilometers.She was discovered by chance by a local hunter following the scent of a bear. This cave has a grotto containing 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 of sandstone. The type of this object is horizontal.
The cave was first explored in 1947. It has about twelve thousand intersections and many intricate passages. In 2013, an expedition discovered a map of this cave carved into stone, which exactly repeats the passages. The size of this “map” is relatively large.
While studying the passages, it became clear that the Botovskaya cave was visited more than once by Neolithic researchers.
The opportunity to get into the cave appears only in winter, since it can only be reached by tractor on the ice of the Lena River. The path on the ice is almost ninety kilometers.
But the Orda Cave is recognized as the longest underwater cave in Russia. It is located in the Perm region, eighty kilometers from the city of Kungur and received 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, we can highlight several of the most beautiful and largest ones. Such is the caves of Zakynthos, located on the Greek island of the same name. The caves reflect the color of the sky and ocean. They are also called blue caves. The Cave of Melessani, 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 staggeringly sized Škocjan caves. The underground halls and gorges are immense in shape. In fact, this is a whole network consisting of eleven caves.
In Chile Chico there are the most beautiful Marble Caves. The amazing thing is that they are entirely made of marble. The beauty of the naturally formed caves mesmerizes 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 Cenota Yucatan. They formed on the Yucatan Peninsula. Even the Mayan Indians considered them sacred.
In 2000, the Crystal Cave was discovered in Mexico. Its second name is the Cave of Crystals. It contains many huge selenite crystals. You can visit the cave only with special equipment, since 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 is that it is a closed ecosystem. For five million years it existed separately from the Earth's ecosystem. This was the reason that several dozen unknown plants and living creatures were discovered in this cave. It was opened only in 1996.
On the island of Borneo there is Ila National Park. There is a cave there, discovered in 1980, reaching a kilometer in length, two kilometers in width, and its height is two hundred meters.
In the USA, in the state of New Mexico, there is a large cave - Big Room or " A large 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 there is a cave that is recognized as both the largest and most beautiful in the world. Its name is Hang Son Doong or Son Doong Cave. The location of this natural site is Quang Binh province, five hundred kilometers from Hanoi, near the border with Laos in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.Local residents have known this huge cave since 1991, and it was discovered by speleologists in 2009. Finding her was not easy, since she is located in an 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 Crow Cave or Krubera Cave, located in Abkhazia in the Gagra ridge. The cave is branched, there are two branches in it. The depth of one is one kilometer three hundred meters, the other is two kilometers one hundred and 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 depths than the previous one.
The caves surprise not only with their size, but also with their beauty. But there are others in Russia Beautiful places. .
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