Caves are structures often associated with mystery and fantasy. They are a significant part of academic and non-academic literature as well as folklore and moral stories. You can easily come across a mention of caves in historic tales, religious texts, novels, fictional short stories, and other pieces of works.
In today’s time, caves are also used in video games. People love talking, reading, and hearing about caves. The major reason behind the same is the interesting and intriguing stories surrounding caves. Another reason is that most people have never seen any cave in real life. They have seen caves in pictures, songs, movies, videos, and video games.
So, the imagination of people becomes vivid whenever they think about caves. Though today, caves might have been limited to the imagination of people, in earlier times, caves were used for various purposes. All ancient civilizations had strong ties with caves.
Many caves are open for people to visit since they depict the rich culture, history, and art of the past. They are not just an epitome of aesthetical beauty, but also a symbol of the glorious past. Caves hold a place of importance in the scriptures of every religion. A lot of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cave temples exist throughout the world.
Moreover, the term ‘cavemen’ is not easy to forget, as every person has read it several times in school and college. Primitive humans, i.e., human species that existed before the homo sapiens, used to live in caves. Many pieces of scientific evidence prove that cavemen existed in prehistoric times. Proof that shows their way of living and specific tendencies also exist.
Explorers, scientists, adventurers, and tourists visit caves in different parts of the world to satisfy their curiosity. They take the latest equipment with them to document their exploration and collect pieces of evidence. They also practice the necessary safety measures as several types of known and unknown organisms live in caves.
You might have heard about various discoveries related to caves in the news. Whenever any new piece of information becomes available to scientists, explorers, archeologists, and other people, it is distributed to the public at large. Both print and electronic media cover the latest news regarding caves. They make the news accessible to people through newspapers, online articles, television, radio, mobile news applications, and other mediums.
The factor that draws the attention of people toward caves and makes them long to visit caves is dark passageways. When you pass through a dark tunnel in a car, bus, train, or any other vehicle, you get goosebumps. You feel as if you have entered another world or dimension.
So, it’s natural to feel inclined towards exploring or visiting caves. They are full of dark and narrow passageways. People willing to learn more about tunnels have some questions in mind. These questions include, but are not limited to ‘Which is the world’s largest cave?’, ‘Which is the oldest cave art?’, and ‘Which is the world’s deepest cave?’.
While we cannot answer all the questions you might have in a single blog post, we have tried to provide a satisfactory answer to the question about the deepest cave in the world. We have shared the relevant details about the world’s deepest cave in the following paragraphs. We have collected the information from reliable sources.
Which Is The World Deepest Cave?
The deepest cave in the world is Veryovkina Cave, which is located in Abkhazia, a region of Georgia.
Before we move forward, it’s important to explain the location of Veryovkina Cave. Abkhazia is a partially recognized state in the South Caucasus. The South Caucasus is situated in the midst of a geopolitical transition. It is a zone between East and West. Also known as ‘The Transcaucasus’, the South Caucasus is a region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It comprises three countries, which are Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Southern Russia. Controversies surround the ties between Abkhazia and Georgia.
Many countries think of Abkhazia, which is officially the Republic of Abkhazia, as a part of Georgia. The country of Georgia also considers Abkhazia legally part of Georgia, but it lacks control over this state. Abkhazia, which is located in Northwestern Georgia, declared independence in the year 1999.
Now, let’s have a look at some details regarding Veryovkina Cave.
First of all, let’s see the depth of this cave, as it is the reason why this cave is known as the deepest cave in the world. Veryovkina Cave has a depth of 2212 meters. In terms of feet, the depth is 7257 feet. It’s also important to mention here that it is the ‘deepest-known’ cave in the world. In simple words, Veryovkina Cave is the deepest among the caves identified till now. Many caves are still unidentified, unrecognized, and unexplored.
So, it’s quite possible that a cave that is even deeper than Veryovkina Cave might get discovered in the future. Until then, let’s learn all that we can about this cave. The entrance of Veryovkina Cave is located in the Arabika Massif, which is a glacially eroded karst outcropping of the Gagra Mountain Range in Abkhazia.
Located 2285 meters above sea level, the entrance of this cave has a cross-section of 3 m × 4 m. The entrance shaft has a depth of 32 meters. There is a mind-blowing history behind the discovery and exploration of Veryovkina Cave. Interestingly, the depth of this cave was not found during its discovery. It was found after forty-seven years of discovery.
Who Discovered The Veryovkina Cave And When Was Its Depth Measured?
Soviet speleologists first discovered Veryovkina Cave in the year 1968. At that time, the Soviet Union or the USSR had control over the region. The USSR, i.e., the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, lasted from 1922 to 1991. It used to be operated as and considered a single country, but it was made up of 15 countries. If you don’t know, let us tell you that a speleologist is a person who studies caves or goes inside caves for sport.
Veryovkina Cave was given the name ‘S-115’ in the year 1968. It was then given the name P1-7. Its name was again changed in the year 1986. It was given the name ‘Veryovkina’ after caver Alexander Verevkin in 1986. Soviet speleologists reached only 115 meters deep in the cave. They marked the cave as ‘S-115’ on the map.
Further discoveries regarding Veryovkina Cave were made in the year 1983. Oleg Parfenov led an expedition that climbed down a well. The research team engaged in this expedition was known as the ‘Perevo’ speleoclub. This speleoclub was from Moscow, Russia. They marked the cave as ‘P1-7’ on the map. They discovered the new branch of the cave and concluded that the depth of Veryovkina Cave is 440 meters.
Then, in the year 2000, the Perevo speleoclub and Perevo Speleo conducted new expeditions in the cave. They continued the expeditions for many years. They discovered a new shaft in the year 2015. The team brought excavated material to the surface.
A major win came for the research team when they reached a depth of 1832 meters in the year 2017. Hence, Veryovkina Cave became known as the second-deepest cave in the world. At that time, the deepest cave in the world was Krubera Cave, whose depth is 2199 meters. Veryovkina Cave also became the deepest cave accessible without diving equipment.
In 2017 itself, the research team reached a depth of 2204 meters in the cave. It set a new world record in terms of the depth of caves. In 2018, the team reached the bottom of the cave. It was then concluded that the depth of the cave was 2212 meters.
Thus, Veryovkina Cave became the deepest cave in the world. It took four days for the team to reach the bottom of the cave. The researchers spent at least a week inside the cave, thereby tolerating the extreme environment of the cave. They were able to communicate with the outside world. Hence, they used to update their team members in the outside world about the progress of their expedition.
The temperature range inside Veryovkina Cave is 4OC to 7 OC. The cave has nearly 100% humidity. It is excessively damp because the water flowing through tributaries gets splashed in the narrow passageways starting from a depth of 800 meters.
Along with extreme conditions inside the cave, the team of researchers also faced many other challenges. Veryovkina Cave was flooded in the year 2018 because of the heavy rains. The researchers narrowly escaped from the cave and saved their lives. The head of the expeditions to Veryovkina Cave was Pavel Demidov, who is considered to be a hero for giving the world its deepest cave. He passed away on August 23, 2020, while exploring an unexplored cave.
The fate of many researchers is similar to Panel Demidov, but still, researchers take a risk to explore the caves. They go inside caves to gather critical information about the past. They collect samples of fossils. They also collect organisms present inside the caves. Microorganisms might be useful in making medicines.
Interesting Coincidence Related To Veryovkina Cave And Abkhazia
An interesting coincidence related to Abkhazia and Veryovkina Cave is worth sharing here. Veryovkina Cave is not the only cave in Abkhazia or the Republic of Abkhazia. This state has three other caves as well. They are the world’s second, third, and fourth deepest caves. These caves are Krubera Cave, Sarma Cave, and Snezhnaja Cave. They have a depth of 2199 meters, 1830 meters, and 1760 meters, respectively.
Let’s learn a bit more about the aforementioned caves and other world deepest cave.
Krubera Cave
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the second world deepest cave is Krubera Cave. It is one of the two known caves on Earth deeper than 2,000 meters. The cave got its name after Alexander Kruber, who was a Russian geographer.
Located 2256 meters above sea level, the cave was explored in the 1960s by Soviet speleologists. Krubera Cave is also known as ‘Voronya Cave’ and ‘Krubera-Voronya Cave’. The entrance of the cave is located 2320 meters above sea level in the Ortobalagan Valley. Cavers can explore Krubera cave by only using special equipment. This cave is a sub-vertical type of cave. The cave has small lakes and streams of water.
Sarma Cave
Sarma Cave is the third-world deepest cave. Pavel Rudko led the team that measured the depth of the cave as 1830 meters. Thus, the credit for finding out that Sarma Cave is the third deepest cave in the world goes to Pavel Rudko and his team. The cave is located 2000 meters above sea level. Two species of stygobiont amphipods have been found inside the cave. These species are ‘Zenkevitchia sandroruffoi’ and ‘Adaugammarus pilosus’.
Snezhnaja Cave
The fourth deepest cave in the world is Snezhnaja Cave. As we have already mentioned, this cave is also located in the republic of Abkhazia. The depth of this cave is 1760 meters. In terms of feet, the depth of the cave is 5774 feet. It is a part of the Snezhnaya-Mezhennogo-Illyuziya underground water system. The name of the cave means ‘Snow Cave’, as the word ‘Snezh’ means snow in Russia.
Lamprechtsofen Cave
Having a depth of 1632 meters, Lamprechtsofen Cave is the fifth deepest cave in the world. This cave is located in the Leogang mountains in Austria. The cave was explored from the bottom instead of the top. An old legend is associated with this limestone karst river cave.
According to the legend, the cave has a treasure, which was hidden by one of the daughters of a knight named Lamprecht from the crusades. Many treasure hunters tried to explore the cave to get their hands on the hidden treasure. Therefore, the cave was kept closed in 1701 to keep the treasure hunters away. 230 feet of the cave was opened as a ‘show cave’ for the public in 1905. Many human skeletons were found in the cave in 1905. These skeletons are believed to be those of treasure hunters.
Which Is The Largest Cave And The Longest Cave In The World?
Now that you have known the five deepest cave systems in the world, you should also know which is the largest cave system, longest cave system, and the largest underwater cave system in the world. We have shared some details regarding them in the following paragraphs in this blog post.
Son Doong Cave – The Largest Cave In The World 
The largest cave in the world is the Son Doong Cave. The length of this cave is 5.5 miles, i.e., 8851 meters. The cave has a depth of 150 meters. Also known as the ‘Hang Son Doong’ cave, this cave is located in Vietnam. To be more precise, the cave is located near the Laos–Vietnam border. Hang Son Doong means the ‘cave of the mountain river’. This cave is believed to be between two and five million years old. Formed in soluble limestone, Son Doong Cave has the largest cross-section of any cave.
Son Doong Cave was first founded by a man named ‘Ho Khanh’ in the year 1991. He found the entrance to the cave but could not enter the cave. Members of the British Cave Research Association (BCRA) came to know about this incident. They led the expedition into the Son Doong Cave in the year 2009. Then, the cave became extremely popular.
Mammoth Cave – The Longest Cave In The World
Mammoth Cave is located in Kentucky, a state in the Southwestern region of the United States of America. It is the longest cave system in the world. The cave is spread across an area of 52,830 acres. More than 400 miles of passageways in the cave have been surveyed and explored.
Mammoth Cave is a part of Mammoth Cave National Park. This national park was created to preserve Mammoth Cave. Mammoth Cave National Park has been declared a ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ and ‘International Biosphere Reserve’. The park includes Mammoth Cave as well as the Green River, and the Nolin River.
Remains of many Native Americans were recovered from Mammoth Cave during the 19th and 20th centuries. The cave became a popular tourist destination when Europeans colonized the United States of America. Both national and international tourists visit the national park to see the longest cave system in the world.
Sistema Sac Actun Cave – The Largest Underwater Cave In The World
You might be surprised to know, but the caves exist under the water bodies as well. Underwater caves are found throughout the world. The largest world deepest cave underwater is Sistema Sac Actun Cave. It is also the longest underwater cave known. It is located under the municipality of Tulum in Quintana Roo along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
The length of the cave is 384 kilometers, whereas its depth is 119 meters. Sistema Sac Actun Cave system became the largest underwater cave in the world in the year 2007 when the underwater cave Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich was subsumed into the underwater cave Sac Actun. It comprises 200 small caves that are connected underwater.
Most tourists can access the cave through the Gran Cenote, an underwater cavern, which is a famous tourist spot. The cave is open for visitors the whole day. Those who want to swim in the water inside the cave have to pay a small fee. Sistema Sac Actun Cave is believed to hold the secrets of the Mayan Civilization. Pat Kambesis and Jim Coke published a detailed document on this cave system in the year 2016.
Significance Of Caves In The History And Geography Of The World
A cave is a naturally occurring void or hollow space in the ground. Caves are formed due to the weathering of rock. The term ‘weathering’ refers to the deterioration of rocks, soils, wood, minerals, and artificial materials through contact with atmospheric gasses, biological organisms, and water.
Caves can be divided into different types, such as Karst Caves (which are also known as Solutional Caves), Glacier Caves, Sea Caves, Primary Caves, Erosional Caves, Talus Caves, and Eolian Caves. A cave has a large enough space for a human being to enter. Caves have passageways and rooms.
As we have mentioned earlier in this blog post, a speleologist is a person who studies caves or goes inside caves for sport. The science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment is known as ‘Speleology’. The activity of exploring or visiting caves for the purpose of touring is known as caving.
The number of explored caves in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania is larger than the number of explored caves in Africa, South America, and Antarctica. There are numerous undocumented caves across the world. Many caves contain paintings that prove that people from ancient civilizations used to live in the caves.
The oldest known cave painting or cave art is a life-sized picture of a wild pig in Leang Tedongnge Cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia. This painting is believed to have been made at least 45,500 years ago. It was founded by Basran Buhran on the island of Sulawesi in the year 2017.
There are thousands of manmade caves in the world as well. Many manmade caves have been believed to be dug by people of ancient civilizations. In today’s time, people build caves for a variety of purposes, such as mining, oil exploration, and so on. The biggest manmade cave in the world is the ‘816 Nuclear Plant’, which is located in the mountains of Fuling district in Chongqing municipality in southwestern China. This cave was built to manufacture plutonium in the 1960s.
Closing Thoughts
We are sure that your interest in learning about caves must have increased after reading this blog post. If you want to visit any cave, plan your next trip to a destination that has one or more caves, which are open for visitors.
.){kind=link}