These incredible grottos will have you caving in with astonishment
Beauty often likes to stay hidden — atop high peaks, deep under the ocean or within wondrous crevices. Whether underground or over it and inside mountains, here are some of the most astounding caves around the world that will leave you agape in amazement.
1. REED FLUTE CAVE, China
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The cave with multi-coloured lighting is 180 million years old and has been a tourist attraction for over a millennium. It gets its name from the reed that grows outside, which can be used to make flute. Replete with rock formations, it features 70 ink inscriptions that date back to the Tang Dynasty, as far as 792 AD. The cavern was rediscovered in the 1940s by refugees fleeing the Japanese troupe.
2. FINGAL’S CAVE, Scotland
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The sea cave lies on the uninhabited island of Staffa. Named after the hero of an epic poem by 18th-centural Scots poet-historian James Macpherson, it’s famed for its natural acoustics. It’s formed entirely from hexagonally-jointed basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow, similar to the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. Also referred to as Uamh-Binn or the ‘cave of melody’ by the Celts, legend has it that both the structures were end pieces of a bridge built by the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), so he could reach Scotland to fight his rival Benandonner.
3. MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK, USA
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The 21,367-hectare park is an underground labyrinth that boasts of the Green and Nolin rivers, swift-moving waterways, forests, wildlife, hills and natural springs. It is home to the old railroad Engine No 4, Cedar Sink sinkholes, Good Spring Church and Turnhole Bend. The first human to enter the longest-known cave system in the world was about 4,000 years ago. Park rangers offer informative tours here or you can explore it on your own.
Pic: Brand USA
4. EISRIESENWELT ICE CAVE, Austria
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The name means ‘World of the Ice Giants’ in German. Located inside the Hochkogel mountain in the Alps, it’s the largest ice cave in the world, extending more than 42 km. Before it was discovered in 1879 by Anton Posselt, who only explored about 200 metres, locals refused to enter it as they believed it was the gateway to Hell. Since 1912, Alexander von Mörk later led several expeditions here. After he died in the World War II in 1914, his ashes have been kept inside the cave.
5. ŠKOCJAN CAVE, Slovenia
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The limestone dugout comprises collapsed dolines, six km of 200-metre deep underground passages, many waterfalls and one of the largest known underground chambers. It’s famed for the study of karstic phenomena cave. It was entered on UNESCO’s list of natural and cultural world heritage sites in 1986.
6. WAITOMO GLOWWORM CAVES, New Zealand
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The cavern on the North Island is known for Arachnocampa luminosa, a glowworm species found exclusively in New Zealand. The network includes the Ruakuri Cave and the Aranui Cave. The limestone formation (composed of fossilised corals, seashells, fish skeletons, etc.) here occurred when the region was still under the ocean 30 million-odd years ago.
