The Krubera-Voronya cave, located in Abkhazia, is considered the deepest studied in the world: the entrance to it is located at an altitude of about 2256 meters above sea level in the Orto-Balagan tract. The cave, which is part of a mountain cave, was discovered in 1960 by Georgian speleologists and explored to a depth of 95 meters. Expeditions carried out in the karst cave cavity over the next half century discovered small branches at depth.
Knowledge about the mysterious underground passages multiplied with each new descent: for several decades, each successive speleological expedition announced reaching a new depth - 210, 340, 710 meters. Research continued until 2007, when a depth of 2196 meters was reached. One of the grottoes of the cave was called the “Hall of Soviet Speleologists”: the discovery of the Krubera-Voronya cave is the merit of several generations of karstologists and speleologists.
The Krubera-Voronya cave is part of the Arabica mountain range, Abakhzia // Stephen Alvarez, National Geographic Stock
There are no established tourist routes in the Krubera-Voronya cave; You can only go down to the bottom as part of one of the speleological expeditions, which are held several times a year to explore the cave cavity.
How to get there
The Arabica mountain range is located 15 kilometers northeast of the resort. Getting to the depths of the Krubera-Voronya karst cave is possible only as part of expeditions, with special speleological equipment and appropriate mountaineering skills.
The resort town of Gagra is located 20 km from the Russian-Abkhazian border. The most convenient way to get to Gagra is from Adler through the Psou border checkpoint. In summer, you can get from the airport or Adler bus station to Abkhazia by minibuses running several times an hour. The distance from Adler to Gagra is 33 km.
The Krubera-Voronya cave is located in the Arabica mountain range. Just the sight of it is breathtaking: numerous layers of earth, water flowing down and pitch darkness all around. And under your feet there is a terrible abyss.
But if you think that Krubera-Voronya is a huge, straight and wide hole in the ground, I will have to disappoint you.
This cave is a labyrinth of passages leading down, branching in different directions, forming water wells. These are often narrow gaps, and getting through them means risking your life.
That is why descending into a cave is dangerous and very difficult. In addition to the fact that speleologists constantly have to overcome oblique descents, they also carry air tanks, food and various equipment for sleeping and rest.
And if there is a sudden downpour in the mountains, there is a danger of falling into an underground flood whirlpool.
The Georgians were the first to discover the cave in 1960, although at that time it was possible to explore it only to a depth of 180 m. It was in the sixties that the cave received its first name - Krubera, in honor of the famous Soviet physicist, geographer and karst expert Alexander Kruber.
The second part of the name - Voronya - was assigned to the cave during another attempt to explore its depths, when desperate adventurers reached 340 m underground. Since then, the cave has been called Krubera-Voronya.
Each expedition made incredible discoveries: they discovered new passages, underground waterfalls, tunnels. Some of them led to a dead end, others became the beginning of a new long path.
Today, the depth to which they were able to explore the cave is 2196 m. The record belongs to a resident of Crimea GennadiYuSamokhin. In the summer of 2012, the speleologist as part of the team of the Ukrainian Speleological Association reached his current maximum and... became famous throughout the world.
There, at a depth of hundreds of meters, in the strong embrace of the earth, the researcher discovered a unique ecosystem.
- Having plunged into one of the underwater lakes, I noticed living creatures around me. They were small, absolutely transparent fish. They swam around me, touching my legs, arms and mask. It was clearly visibleridgeand fins on the tail.Spinnsand abdominalI couldn’t see their fins. Perhaps they were not there at all. Unfortunately, I had nowhere to take at least one fish to study. I didn't have a camera with me either.
There are no tourist routes to the Krubera-Voronya cave. So you can only get into its tunnels as part of a speleological expedition with special climbing skills.
It is interesting that the shortest river on the planet is fed by the waters of the deepest cave in the world - Reprua, 18 m long.
How deep the Georgian cave is is not known for certain, but even part of it has been studied (2196 m), making the underground labyrinth in the Arabica mountain range the deepest on the entire planet.
Tourism is one of the main sectors of the economy of Abkhazia. All travelers come here for two things, beach and mountain tourism. Most of the attractions consist of objects of natural origin, which are mainly located in mountainous areas. Among them are gardens, lakes, waterfalls and, of course, caves, which are in demand and famous in Abkhazia, as well as beyond its borders. Special attention deserves the Krubera-Voronya cave, which will be discussed further.
The Krubera-Voronya Cave is a natural site known all over the world. The reason for this is its physical size; this cave is the deepest cave currently explored in the whole world. This natural miracle reaches a depth of up to 2199 meters! Krubera-Voronya cave is located in the Arabica mountain range, Gagra ridge, in the Western Caucasus.
The Arabica massif is one of the largest and highest in the Western Caucasus. The depths of this part of the Gagra ridge are dotted with many caves, including Krubera-Voronya. Its main entrance rises at an altitude of about 2250 meters above sea level, surrounded by the Orto-Balagan tract. According to its type, the Krubera-Voronya cave is a karst cave, which was formed by the long-term activity of water dissolving the rock, which in turn led to the appearance of voids.
The Krubera-Voronya cave is subvertical and consists of a series of wells connected by galleries and climbers. Another entrance to it was opened in August 2014 and it is located three meters higher than the main one. Still, there are five entrances to the cave. Having descended to a depth of 200 meters, the “mine” branches into two main ones: the Main branch, depth up to 2196 meters, and the Nekuibyshevskaya branch, depth 1697 meters. After a level of 1300 meters, the Krubera-Voronya cave branches into many others.
The Krubera-Voronya cave contains quite deep plumbs, among which there are heights of 110, 115 and even 152 meters. Just imagine that such a plumb line can accommodate a 50-story skyscraper. More than 8 tunnels (siphons) are known in the bottom part of the cave. The bottom part of the attraction has another interesting feature, starting from a depth of 1600 meters, the limestone in which the cave is located becomes black.
Krubera-Voronya Cave was discovered in 1960. For the first time it was explored to a depth of 95 meters by an expedition led by the largest researcher of Georgian geography, honored scientist, doctor geographical sciences and Professor Levan Iosifovich Maruashvili. The cave received its name in honor of the outstanding Soviet geographer, founder of Russian karst studies, Alexander Alexandrovich Kruber.
After some time, the Krubera-Voronya cave was forgotten, but in 1968 it was explored again, but to a depth of 210 meters, by speleologists from Krasnoyarsk. The new expedition gave a new name to the natural object, Siberian Cave. Oddly enough, the cave again lost interest and was forgotten until the 1980s, when Kyiv speleologists discovered it and re-explored it to a new depth of 340 meters. This time the Krubera-Voronya cave received its new, third name, Voronya.
Subsequent descents resumed only in August 1999, the reason for such a long break was the Georgian-Abkhaz war, which cut off the Krubera-Voronya cave from free visits by speleologists. At the end of the 1990s, Kyiv speleologists reached a depth of 700 meters, which in September 2000 had already reached 1410 meters. In January 2001, members of the Ukrainian Speleological Association, together with Moscow speleologists, set a world record, reaching 1710 meters.
In subsequent years, the Krubera-Voronya cave became a place of rivalry between the two teams. In August 2003, the Russian Cavex team passed the fourth siphon and stopped at a depth of 1680 meters, where it then had free continuation. A year later, the same team set a new world record at 1775 meters.
A month later, the Ukrainian Speleological Association explored another branch of the Krubera-Voronya cave, and again set a world record of 1840 meters, and on October 19, for the first time in the history of speleology, the 2-kilometer limit was overcome - 2080 meters. All subsequent expeditions of the rival teams consisted of diving bottom tunnels (siphons), each time increasing the depth.
On August 10, 2013, the Krubera-Voronya cave became known for a new record of 2197 meters, set by a teacher and speleologist from Simferopol, Gennady Viktorovich Samokhin. And in 2014, a new entrance was passed, located 2 meters lower from the main one, which increased the depth of the system to 2199 meters, with total length at 16058 meters. So every year more and more expeditions come, exploring the subsoil, discovering something new, and who knows, maybe the numbers 2199 and 16058 meters are not the limit.
There are some pretty deep caves, and over 85% of those discovered to date are above sea level!
But not these ten: they are the deepest in the world, and some of them are so deep that they can only be explored and studied with the help of radar equipment, since not a single person could survive in them...
10. Huautla Cave System, Mexico
depth - 1475 m
It is a cave system that is said to have endless passages, waterfalls as tall as a 60-story skyscraper, and true natural wonders such as a huge 90-meter cavity called the Aphrodite Hall.
9. Cave Čehi II (Čehi 2), Slovenia
depth - 1502 m
In Slovenia, all caves are considered national property and are protected by law, even if they happen to be located on privately owned land!
8. Sima De La Cornisa Cave, Spain
depth - 1507 m
This cave system is famous for its 28 Neanderthal skeletons, discovered in one of the deepest parts of the cave. But how they got there without the equipment we have today is still one of the questions. greatest secrets peace.
7. Cave named after. Vyacheslav Pantyukhin (Pantyukhin Cave), Abkhazia
depth - 1508 m
In the mine. Vyacheslav Pantyukhin has 513 caves, and new ones open every year.
6. Torca Del Cerro Del Cuevón, Spain
depth - 1589 m
The Torca del Cerro cave system is a system consisting of two interconnected deep chasms. It is also a deep chasm that has claimed the lives of many cave explorers.
5. Jean Bernard Caves, France
depth - 1602 m
This cave is located in the Alps and has the highest entrance in the world. It's also pretty deep, but that goes without saying since it's on this list.
4. Mirolda Cave (Gouffre Mirolda), France
depth - 1626 m
Back in 2001, Mirolda Cave was considered the deepest in the world, but over time, deeper cave systems were discovered, which you will learn about below.
3. Lamprechtsofen Cave, Austria
depth - 1632 m
This is a cave that has been known and explored since 1701, but soon after its discovery it was walled up to prevent the invasion of treasure hunters who tried to get into it, having heard enough legends about wealth hidden by a knight named Lamprecht, who returned from the Crusades.
2. Snezhnaya Cave, Abkhazia
depth - 1753 m
Snezhnaya Cave is the general name of the cave system, which consists of interconnected caves: “Snezhnaya”, “Mezhennogo”, “Illusion”.
1. Krubera Cave, Abkhazia
depth - 2199 m
Also called Crow Cave, it is the deepest in the world today, and every time someone goes down into it using sonar, it gets deeper and deeper. The Krubera-Voronya Cave is the only known cave whose depth exceeds 2 kilometers.
There are some pretty deep caves, and over 85% of those discovered to date are above sea level!
But not these ten: they are the deepest in the world, and some of them are so deep that they can only be explored and studied with the help of radar equipment, since not a single person could survive in them...
10. Huautla Cave System, Mexico
depth - 1475 m
It's a cave system that is said to have endless passages, waterfalls as tall as a 60-story skyscraper, and true natural wonders such as a huge 90-meter cavity called the Aphrodite Hall.
9. Cave Čehi II (Čehi 2), Slovenia
depth - 1502 m
In Slovenia, caves are considered national property and are protected by law, even if they happen to be located on privately owned land!
8. Sima De La Cornisa Cave, Spain
depth - 1507 m
This cave system is famous for its 28 Neanderthal skeletons, discovered in one of the deepest parts of the cave. But how they got there without the equipment we have today is still one of the world's greatest mysteries.
7. Cave named after. Vyacheslav Pantyukhin (Pantyukhin Cave), Abkhazia
depth - 1508 m
In the mine. Vyacheslav Pantyukhin has 513 caves, and new ones open every year.
6. Torca Del Cerro Del Cuevón, Spain
depth - 1589 m
The Torca del Cerro cave system is a system consisting of two interconnected deep chasms. It is also a deep chasm that has claimed the lives of many cave explorers.
5. Jean Bernard Caves, France
depth - 1602 m
This cave is located in and has the highest entrance in the world. It's also pretty deep, but that goes without saying since it's on this list.
4. Mirolda Cave (Gouffre Mirolda), France
depth - 1626 m
Back in 2001, Mirolda Cave was considered the deepest in the world, but over time, deeper cave systems were discovered, which you will learn about below.
3. Lamprechtsofen Cave, Austria
depth - 1632 m
This is a cave that has been known and explored since 1701, but soon after its discovery it was walled up to prevent the invasion of treasure hunters who tried to get into it, having heard enough legends about wealth hidden by a knight named Lamprecht, who returned from the Crusades.
2. Snezhnaya Cave, Abkhazia
depth - 1753 m
Snezhnaya Cave is the general name of the cave system, which consists of interconnected caves: “Snezhnaya”, “Mezhennogo”, “Illusion”.
1. Krubera Cave, Abkhazia
depth - 2199 m
Also called Crow Cave, it is the deepest in the world today, and every time someone goes down into it using sonar, it gets deeper and deeper. The Krubera-Voronya Cave is the only known cave whose depth exceeds 2 kilometers.
