Of the 10 deepest caves on the planet, 4 are in Abkhazia. This is not surprising - three quarters of the territory of this country is occupied by the spurs of the Main Caucasian ridge.
Two underground cavities of the mountain range with the coffee name Arabica constantly compete with each other for the right to be called the deepest. These are Krubera Cave and Verevkin Cave. Research has not yet been completed in either one or the other. As the cavers move on, the numbers for the depths of the caves change.
Until 2017, the Krubera-Voronya cave was officially considered the deepest on the planet. There is no specialist in the world of speleological geologists who would not dream of visiting it.
The most interesting of the facts: the explored depth of the cave already today exceeds the mark of the deepest point of the Black Sea. The cave is full of mysteries and interesting stories.
Legends
According to local legends, the gods imprisoned the Abkhazian hero Abrskil in the dungeon. The character has mastered many miracles: to cause thunder and lightning, to fly across the sky on his horse Arash and, most importantly, in the opinion of the villagers, to plague the weeds. The gods considered this a daring challenge, which was personally thrown down to them by an ordinary person. And they chained the impostor together with the horse to a pillar deep in the cave.
The hero tried to run more than once. According to one version, he succeeded, and some objects remained in the cave, with the help of which Abrskil worked miracles. According to another legend, the hero is still imprisoned in a cave. A small river flows out of the cave, its name is translated from Abkhaz as "carrying horse manure". From the winged horse, apparently …
Multiple names
The first researchers of the underground cavity were Georgian geologists in 1960. They managed to descend only 95 meters. After assessing the potential of the cave, they named it after Alexander Kruber. This great scientist-geographer and founder of Russian karstology, was the first to study the Abkhaz mountains at the beginning of the 20th century.
The next expedition was organized in 1968 by Krasnoyarsk cavers. They sank deeper - up to 210 meters. Naturally, the cave was named Siberian.
In the 80s, cavers again decided to explore the cave. This time the people of Kiev managed to get to a depth of 340 meters. And the cave received the third name - Voronya.
World records
They are installed with each subsequent descent into this bottomless dungeon. Each expedition updated the previous record. At present, the current depth mark of the underground cavity has long exceeded 2 kilometers. But this karst cave is completely vertical. Which does not make it easier to study it.
As climbers conquer new heights, so the explorers of the cave discover new depths in it. Thanks to speleologists, today there is a map of the already explored places of the cave. Every discovery takes place in extreme conditions. So, one expedition had to dive into ice water, one of the participants died.
Therefore, when an underground hall with a lake was opened at a depth of 1710 meters, it was named “The Hall of Soviet Cavers”. Noting this that the next record, like all the previous ones, is the result of the hard work of several generations of researchers.
Underground wonders and beauties
The visual range begins at the entrance: an old stone tower, obviously a watchtower, and the remains of the walls of the fortress. This surviving fragment of the ancient Abkhaz wall looks almost like ruins, but creates the right mood. Because the construction of the great wall is another mystery of Abkhazia.
The semicircular arch is the entrance to the cave. And then a labyrinth of canals and tunnels begins going down. There is a gallery filled with icy water, and a hot spring flows from another. There you can see a frozen waterfall. Beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. And even stalagnates - columns made of connected stalactites and stalagmites. A completely surreal landscape.
In the depths, underground inhabitants were found:
- tailed amphibian
- previously unknown fish species
- invertebrates
- arthropods, etc.
They can hardly be called underground beauties. But this is a demonstration of what life looks like deep underground. And many more geological wonders await the explorers of the cave.
