If there is another place like the depths of the ocean that hides the beauty and splendor of nature, it is a cave. These cracks and holes are created underground or inside the mountains and have a lot of glories to share with the seekers and explorers. Impressive, winding, and vast, these are the 25 most amazing caves in the world.
The most amazing caves in the world
1. Karcher Cave – Arizona, USA
This tourist cave is located in the Arizona State Park and is 3.84 kilometers long and was discovered in 1974 by local cavers. These caves are made of limestone and are full of caves that have grown for more than 50,000 years. Tours of the caves, which are open to the public, include the “King’s Room” where you can see the tallest soda straw stalactites at 6.5 kilometers, and a 1.76 meter Kublai Khan column named after a poem. see is It also includes the “Great Room” which has the largest bruschite moon lion structure in the world as it is home to over 1,000 cave bats. Other caves that are accessible to the public include Dead End Path, Mud Swamp, Strawberry Room, and Vaulted Room.
24. Congo Caves – Western Cape, South Africa
The cave is located in the Precambrian limestone at the foot of the Stewart Berg mountain range in the Western Cape, South Africa, and is one of the country’s best places for caving and attracts many foreign visitors. The caves consist of a vast system of tunnels and halls that continue for about 4 kilometers, although only 1.4 of them are open to the public. Some tours conducted by guides are “standard tours” that may last an hour; And the “adventure tour” can last an hour and a half as you scramble down narrow paths and climb steep cliffs, guided only by flashing lights.
23. Harrison’s Cave – Allen’s View, Barbados
This cave is named after Thomas Harrison, who owned that area in the early 1700s. It was rediscovered in 1974 by Ol Sørensen – an engineer and adventure enthusiast from Denmark – and then developed by the Government of Barbados as a cave and recreational attraction. This cave, which was opened to the public in 1981, was formed naturally by the erosion of limestone. The guided tour usually starts with the “Great Hall” – a huge 3-meter-long cave and continues with a stop at the “Village”, where the structures have been joined together to form columns after thousands of years.
22. Carlsbad Caves – New Mexico, USA
Located in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico, this cave is a recreational cave that is open all year except at Christmas time. To see it, you can walk to the cave or use the elevator in the visitor center. It includes a large hall called the Great Room, a natural limestone structure that is approximately 1,220 meters long and 1,906 meters wide, and the tallest part is 7,777 meters. This is the third largest hall in North America and the seventh in the world.
21. Mammoth Cave – Kentucky, USA
Part of a US national park in central Kentucky, Mammoth Cave has the longest cave system in the world, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System, with more than 584 kilometers of underground passages. The park, established on July 1, 1941, as a central park, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve (1981). Other spectacular sights include the large pit called “Cypress Pit” and “Frozen Niagara”.
20. Dong Zhang Cave – Guizhou, China
This cave, which means “in the cave” in Chinese, is not just an ordinary cave because it has a school in it!! This cave is located in Xion County, Guizhou Province in China, the cave was opened in 1984 as a school with 186 students and 8 teachers. This cave was built by wind, water, earthquake changes, and other natural forces for thousands of years in the heart of the mountain and currently has rooms, small buildings, and recreational areas for students.
19. Fantasy Cave – Dunverke, New Zealand
Fantasy Cave, located in Dunwerke, New Zealand, has been developed for an annual show for locals and tourists alike. These exhibits, which are created and run by volunteers, are constantly being changed and replaced.
18. Phong Na Cave – Minh Hoa, Vietnam
Part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Phong Na Cave is located in the Nha-Ke Bang National Park, in the Minh Hoa region of North-Central Vietnam, about 500 km south of Hanoi. The national park was created to protect its more than 300 caves, isolated from the ecosystem and limestone forest of the Annamite Mountains. Among the 300 caves in Phong Na, only 20 of these caves have been studied by scientists. With a total length of 126 km, it holds several records such as the longest underground river and the largest caves and passages before the discovery of Sun Dong Cave.
17. Barton Creek Cave – Cayo, Belize
A natural cave in Belize near San Ignacio in the Cayo District is not only a popular tourist destination but also an archaeological site. A single-track wavy stream with 6,400 m of the track indicates that there may be an additional 6 km as indicated by dry debris in subsidence currents. In this important archeological site, there was evidence that the first kilometer of the cave route was used by the Maya, and this was due to the presence of a number of pottery shards discovered from 200 BC and the remains of 28 humans.
16. Scotsian Cave – Trieste, Slovenia
A protected cave system in Slovenia, it is about 3.2 km long but attracts many tourists and visitors every year. This cave contains the Reka River, which goes underground for another 33.6 kilometers and shows one of the largest underground “karst” marshes in Europe. This cave became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 and was praised by the scientific community as one of the world’s natural treasures.
15. Deer Cave – Borneo, Malaysia
This cave is located near Miri, Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo, and is a cave attraction that is part of the Mulu Gunog National Park. This cave, also known as “Gua Payao” or “Gua Rosa” by the locals, got its name from a deer that licked the salt rocks and used it as a shelter. This cave was first discovered in 1961 by J. A. Milford and then surveyed in 1987 to determine its dimensions. Its dimensions include 174 meters in width, and 122 meters in height, and its main entrance is 146 meters.
14. Onondaga Cave – Missouri, USA
This cave in Leesburg belongs to the Missouri National Park, which was built in 1982. Although it was first built by the people in 1850, it has a history of war and destruction. Today it is cared for as a protected national park where caving, swimming, fishing, picnicking, and climbing are offered at the visitor center, which also houses a nature museum. Onondaga Cave has tower-like stalagmites, dripping stalactites, and other active rock formations.
13. Puerto Princesa-Palawan underground river, Philippines
Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park – a national park since 1971 – is located in Palawan, Philippines. It is also known as the underground river of St. Paul and is part of the St. Paul mountain range. It was discovered in 2010. In addition to the fact that visitors can visit the cave by boat, the underground river also has a second floor, which indicates the existence of small waterfalls inside the cave. It consists of a huge 300-meter cave dome, incredible rock formations, and an underground river.
12. Majlis al-Jan Cave – Muscat, Oman
This cave is located in the Salma Plateau, 1,380 meters above sea level in the Sultanate of Oman. This cave is formed in fossil carbonate rocks and is the ninth cave hall in the world. A single hall is about 310 meters with a width of 255 meters and an open roof with a thickness of about 40 meters. This cave has a volume of 4,000,000 cubic meters and its floor area is about 58,000 square meters. Its deepest part is about 178 meters below the highest entrance.
11. Isrisen Welt-Worfen Ice Cave, Austria
Isrisen Welt, German for “Ice Giants of the World”, is made of natural limestone ice located in Werfen, Austria. This cave, inside Hokogel Mountain, is a part of Tennjeberg in the Alps, and is “the largest ice cave in the world”. With a length of more than 42 km, it attracts about 200,000 tourists every year due to its ice structures. These cave structures are formed by the melting of the snow that enters the cave and freezes during the winter. During the cold winter, winds blow into the cave and melt the snow inside; In summer, the cool wind from inside the cave prevents it from melting.
10. Magnificent Cave Pit – Georgia, USA
This cave is located in Ellison Caves, east of Lafayette, Georgia and is 17 meters and 873 centimeters deep. It is the deepest cave in the United States and is big enough to hold the Washington Monument.
9. Ni Flute Cave – Guangxi, China
The cave is a landmark and tourist attraction outside the city of Gulin in Guangxi, China, and its name comes from the reeds found inside the cave, which are ideal for making flutes. This cave has excellent rock and mineral structures, stone columns and carbon deposits. Illuminated by different colored lights, it has been one of Gulin’s most attractive tourist attractions for the past 1,200 years. Rediscovered in 1940 by a group of refugees, the 180-year-old cave has more than 70 ink inscriptions dating back to 792 AD to the Tang Dynasty.
8. Blue Cave – Capri, Italy
It is a famous sea cave on the coast of the island of Capri in Italy. Sunlight passes through the underwater hole and makes the sea water sparkle, creating a blue reflection that marks the cave.
7. Ice Cave – Skitfell, Iceland
The Wörfjörður Ice Cave, located in a frozen lagoon in Skaðfell Iceland, is one of the most famous ice caves in the world. It was created by hot volcanic water under the Vatnajökull glacier and was discovered in 1980 during a mission.
6. Lascaux-Mouting Cave, France
The location of some complex caves in France is famous for the Paleolithic cave paintings discovered by a teenager in 1940. Palaeolithic art, which is estimated to be 17,300 years old, includes images of large animals whose existence is evidenced by fossils. This cave was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. It was opened in 1948 but was closed to the public until 1963 to preserve the art. Cave rooms you can explore include the Hall of Cats, Hall of Cows, Altar, Nave, Pillars, and Passageways.
5. Crystal Cave – Huahuaan, Mexico
The cave was discovered as recently as 2000 when scientists discovered a fissure after digging into the aquifer and pulling out tens of thousands of gallons of water. The cave, which is connected to the Naica mine in Jihuahuan, Mexico, has crystal structures that are very large, measuring more than 915 cm in height and 122 cm in diameter. This cave is formed due to a source of water rich in calcium sulfate, this water is heated by magma injection and makes the cave so hot that people can only endure ten minutes in it with proper protection. That is why most parts of the cave are still unexplored.
4. Firefly Cave – Waitomo, New Zealand
A cave in Waitomo on the North Island of New Zealand is famous for its fireflies, which are about the size of an average mosquito. It is part of the Waitomo cave system along with the Rwakuri and Aranoi caves. This cave is unique to New Zealand and a must-see for all travelers to enjoy a boat ride among the thousands of fireflies that illuminate the cave and have been part of cultural and natural history for over 120 years.
3. Fingal’s Cave – Staffa, Scotland
Fingal’s Cave, a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa in Scotland, is composed entirely of hexagonal basalt columns within a Paleocene lava flow. The cave is famous for its natural vaulted ceiling that produces strange sounds created by waves to create the atmosphere of a natural cathedral.
2. Cave of the Swallows – Aquizmon, Mexico
A soldier cave located in the municipality of Aquizmon in Mexico has a waterfall from 333 meters from the roof of the cave to the lowest part of the crater with water falling from 370 meters from the highest part. It is the second deepest pit in Mexico and the 11th in Denny, where a skyscraper like NYC’s Chrysler Building can easily fit into it. The cave has a low temperature with thick vegetation in the crater and rain can cause the waterfall to flow into the crater. Apart from layers of debris and guano, you can also find a pit in a fault in the Lower Cretaceous limestone that can go down to 512 meters.
1. Cave of Spirits – Saynama National Park, Venezuela
This cave ranks first in the list of the most amazing caves in the world, it is a fascinating cave located in southern Venezuela. Located in one of the most biologically and archaeologically geographically rich parts of the world, the Aprada Tufi is large enough to accommodate two helicopters. However, experts believe that it is not really a cave but a steep and collapsed gorge.