The caves served as a refuge for humans at the dawn of civilization. Today, these underground voids attract courageous cavers seeking to penetrate as deep as possible to the heart of the Earth.
Today's top ten contains the largest caves in the world... Two of them are located on the territory of Abkhazia, which allows hundreds of Russian tourists to visit these natural monuments annually.
10. Optimistic Cave
Optimisticheskaya is the largest gypsum cave in the world. It is located on the territory of Ukraine in the Ternopil region. The cave has not been fully explored, 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 Yucatan Peninsula, the total length of the corridors is 256 km.
8. Jewel cave system
Located in South Dakota, the cave system has a total length of over 257 km. Strong drafts walk in the galleries of the cave, the 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 state of Salzburg. Its length is 38 km, and its maximum depth is 1,632 meters. It is noteworthy that the practical Austrians built a mini-power plant in the cave, which produces energy from the flow of an 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 crossings exceeds 587 km. The cave was discovered in 1797. Its maximum depth is 115 meters.
5. Snowy
One of the deepest caves in the world is located in Abkhazia. Its depth is 1,753 meters, and the length of all corridors, sometimes quite low, is more than 24 km. "Snezhnaya" is a system of three caves, which are interconnected without siphons - underwater tunnels filled with water.
4. Shkotsian caves
The cave system, located in the mountains of Slovenia, is 6 km long. The height of the vaults reaches 50 meters. There are more than 30 underground waterfalls in the cave system, and there is also 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 Gua Nasib Bagus cave. Only trained tourists are allowed on an excursion to Sarawak, a visit to the grotto lasts all day.
2. Krubera cave
It is also called the Voronya 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. Seongdong Cave
The largest cave in the world located in Vietnam, 500 km from Hanoi. The height of the vaults of the cave is up to 240 meters, the width is 100 meters, and the length of the passages and corridors has been studied so far for only 6.5 km. Cavers discovered the grotto in 2005, although locals have known about Shondong since 1991.