Caves served as a refuge for a person at the dawn of civilization. And today, these underground voids attract courageous speleologists who are striving to penetrate as deep as possible to the heart of the Earth.
In today's top ten are collected the world's largest caves .Two of them are located on the territory of Abkhazia, which allows annually visit these natural monuments to hundreds of Russian tourists.
Contents:
- 10. Optimistic cave
- 9. Oaks-Bel-Ha
- 8. Cave system Jewel
- 7. Lamprechtsofen
- 6. Mammoth cave
- 5. Snow
- 4. Shkocyan caves
- 3. Groth Sarawak
- 2. Cave of Cruber
- 1. Shondong Cave
10. Optimistic cave
"Optimistic" is the largest plaster cave in the world. It is located on the territory of Ukraine in the Ternopil region. The cave has not been explored to the end, but the length of the corridors known to speleologists is 230 km.
9. Oaks-Bel-Ha
The name of this system of underwater caves in translation from one of the Indian dialects means "three ways of water".The system is located in Mexico on the Yucatán peninsula, the total length of the corridors is 256 km.
8. Gevel cave system
The cave system in South Dakota has a total length of more than 257 km. In the galleries of the cave there are strong drafts, gusts of which reach 15 m / s. The maximum depth of the cave is 192 meters.
7. Lamprechtsofen
This cave system is located in the Austrian land of Salzburg. Its length is 38 km, and the maximum depth is 1,632 meters. It is noteworthy that practical Austrians built a mini-power station in the cave that produces energy from the current of the underground river.
6. Mammoth Cave
Located in Kentucky( USA), the karst cave is considered the longest in the world. The length of the investigated part of the transitions exceeds 587 km. The cave was opened in 1797.Its maximum depth is 115 meters.
5. Snow
One of the deepest caves in the world is in Abkhazia. Its depth is 1,753 meters, and the length of all corridors, sometimes quite low, is more than 24 km."Snow" is a system of three caves, which are connected together without siphons - underwater tunnels filled with water.
4. Shkocyan Caves
The cave system, located in the mountains of Slovenia, has a length of 6 km. The height of the vaults reaches 50 meters. In the cave system there are more than 30 underground waterfalls, here is a 15-meter stalagmite, nicknamed the Giant.
3. Grotto Sarawak
Located on the island of Borneo, the grotto is 400 meters wide, 700 meters long and up to 70 meters high. The grotto is part of the huge cave of Gua-Nasib-Bagus. On an excursion to Sarawak, only trained tourists are allowed to visit, the visit to the grotto lasts all day.
2. Kruber's Cave
It is also called the Crow Cave, and it is located in the Gagra Ridge on the territory of Abkhazia. The cave has two branches and is the deepest in the world. The depth of the first branch is 2 196 meters, the second - 1,300 meters.
1. Shondong Cave
The world's largest cave is in Vietnam 500 km from Hanoi. The height of the cave vaults is up to 240 meters, the width is 100 meters, and the length of the passages and corridors has been studied so far only 6.5 kilometers. Cave explorers discovered the grotto in 2005, although locals knew about Shondong since 1991.
