Krubera-Voronya Cave (Abkhazia) is the deepest known cave in the world. Krubera Crow Crow Cave

Address: Abkhazia

Krubera-Voronya cave, located high in the mountains Greater Caucasus in, is the deepest cave in the whole world. Today its depth is 2200 meters. The cave has rich history and is of great value for speleologists.

*Remember that according to Georgian legislation, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are considered occupied territories. Accordingly, by visiting these territories from the Russian side, you are breaking the law.

Story

The history of the cave begins in 1960, in which it was discovered and studied to a depth of 95 meters by a group of enthusiastic speleologists from the Bagrationi Institute of Geography. Immediately after the opening of the cave, it was given the name of Kruber, the founder of Russian karst studies. By the way, since you like caves, maybe you will be interested in the mountains? We invite you to the Georgian resort of Sairme, where there is a wonderful mild climate all year round.

The cave was explored for the second time in 1968 by an expedition of speleologists from Krasnoyarsk. The explored length of the cave increased to 210 meters. She gave the cave a second name - Siberian.

In the 80s of the 20th century, speleologists from Kyiv studied the cave. After this expedition, the explored depth of the cave was 340 meters. Scientists gave the cave another name: Voronya. After this, the cave began to be called Krubera-Voronya.

Exacerbation of the armed conflict in Abkhazia in 1992-1993. suspended the study of the cave for a long time. Research resumed more than 20 years later, in 1999. This year, speleologists from Kyiv made a breakthrough 700 meters deep into the cave.

At the beginning of 2001, the cave was explored by the organization of speleologists of Ukraine together with speleologists from Moscow. During the expedition, a world record was achieved - the depth of the cave was 1710 meters. Previously, the world record holders were the caves of France - Pierre Saint Martin and Jean Bernard, their depth is 1600 meters.

In 2004, during an expedition by the Ukrainian Speleological Association, a new record was set - for the first time in world history, the depth of the cave exceeded 2 km. Currently (2015) the explored depth of the cave is 2200 meters, this is the highest in the world.

About the cave

The entrance to the cave opens on Mount Arabica in the north of the Berchil ridge. The distance above sea level is 2250 meters. The cave has a karst origin of a subvertical type. It consists of a string of wells connected to each other by climbers. The depth of the greatest plumb line is 152 meters.

The shortest river in the world, the Reprua, flows near the cave. Its length is 18 meters. Reprua is the coldest river in the Black Sea basin.

The cave consists of two large branches: Nekuibyshevskaya (length about 1700 meters) and Main (length reaches 2200 meters). At a depth of 1300 meters, the main branch diverges into great amount small branches.

In the deep part of the cave (1400-2150 meters) there are 8 underground tunnels through which water flows. The cave runs through a layer of limestone, which, starting from a depth of 1600 meters and below, is black.

The total length of the passages of the Krubera-Voronya cave exceeds 16 km.

There are no paths for tourists in the cave. Getting into the cave is possible only with a group of speleologists. Expeditions are conducted 2-3 times a year to explore the cave.

How to get there

The city closest to the cave is Gagra. The distance to it is 15 km to the southwest. You will not be able to get inside the cave on your own. This can only be done on an excursion as part of an expedition group with specialized equipment and mountaineering experience.

The Krubera-Voronya cave is of great interest among speleologists as the deepest cave in the world. Speleologists claim that 2200 meters is far from the limit for a cave; there is a possibility of conquering even greater depths.

Remember that according to Georgian legislation, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are considered occupied territories. Accordingly, by visiting these territories from the Russian side, you are breaking the law. This leads to a fine of 400-800 GEL and other troubles.

If you have a stamp in your passport about visiting these territories, it is better not to go to Georgia using this passport. If you want to visit Abkhazia or Ossetia legally, do it from the Georgian side. Get official permission and there will be no problems. More details on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia: www.mfa.gov.ge.

Gallery






From time immemorial, people have been trying to unravel the secrets of nature, and then conquer them. They build airplanes and skyscrapers, dive into depths of the sea, climb to the tops of mountains and, of course, go underground and explore caves.

The deepest cave in the world

Over the years, many underground goths have been found and studied. Here is a list of the deepest caves in the world

Krubera-Voronya Cave

The deepest cave found is in Abkhazia. In 1960, it was discovered by Soviet speleologists. And over the next decades, scientists sank ever deeper.

Expeditions carried out in the karst cave cavity over the next half century discovered small branches at depth.

The latest record belongs to Gennady Samokhin. He found that the depth of the cave was 2196 m.

In the Krubera-Voronya cave there are no paved tourist routes; 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 Gagra 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 time 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.

Regular buses and minibuses connect Gagra with other resorts of Abkhazia - Pitsunda, New Afonomi Sukhum.

Location

The Krubera-Voronya karst cave is located in the Arabica mountain range, in the north-west of Abkhazia.

The second deepest cave in the world is also located in Abkhazia. It was found by Russian speleologists relatively recently, in 1990. Today, scientists have reached a depth of 1830 m.

Initially, the cave looked like a small gap in the rock with a very strong draft of air. The cave was named Sarma. Sarma is a strong wind that periodically blows on Lake Baikal. Its speed is 40 - 50 m/s.

Location

The cave is located on Mount Arabica. The altitude exceeds 2000 meters. Sarma Cave is a karst cave of a subvertical type and is a string of halls and wells connected by tunnels and climbs.

Perspective

Sarma Cave is one of the deepest and most beautiful caves in the world. The explored depths are of great value for world speleology. Scientists believe that the depth of the cave in the future may exceed 2 kilometers.

The third deepest cave in the world is also located in the Caucasus. Soviet scientists first descended into it in 1971. On this moment the dungeons have been explored to a depth of 1760 meters, the total length of the passages is about 32 kilometers.

It is located in the Khypstinsky massif, in one of the spurs of the Bzyb ridge in the thickness of Cretaceous and Jurassic dolomitized limestones.

Depths of the caves included in the system

Illusion -832 m, Mezhennoye -569 m, Snezhnaya -1361 m (lowest point -15 m below the mirror of Lake Morozova). IN Great hall(depth 120-160 m from the surface) - the largest underground snowfield in the territory former USSR- a snow cone with an ice core, the height of which periodically changed in different years from 25 m (based on surveys from 1971-74) to the maximum possible height of 60 m (observations from 2002-2005). The volume of snow and firn varied from 50 to 96 thousand m3. respectively. In the bottom part there are the Throne Hall and Hall X - the largest underground halls in Abkhazia. Their dimensions: Throne room - 309 m by 109 m with a ceiling height of up to 40 m; Hall X - 250 m by 70 m with a ceiling height of up to 50 m.

Other large halls

University, Enfilade (actually three adjacent halls under the same name), halls of Hope, Victory, Dolmen, Expectation, Gremyachiy, halls Glinyany Zaval, IGAN, Penelope, Vienna, Space. All of the listed halls, except for the Bolshoi and University halls, are confined to the cave river, being, in their genesis, supra-channel collapses. Along the way from the upper reaches, the underground river receives large tributaries (flows up to 10-15 l/s during low water): Nevsky Stream, New Stream, Zayachiy, Delusion, Struika, Gremyachiy Streams (falls from the ceiling of the hall like a waterfall). In the bottom part, the cave leads to the largest tributary of the Snowy River - the New (Tatyanina) River (the flow rate is estimated to be a third of the flow rate of the main channel). However, the junction of these two rivers has not yet been discovered.


The caves are located in the Austrian Alps. Locals they knew about it since the 10th century, but real research began only at the beginning of the 20th. During this time, scientists have established that the depth of the cave is 1632 m and allows for the deepest through traverse in the world.

Where is it located?

Lamprechtsophen Cave is located on the Leoganger Steinberge mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps.

Its main entrance is a source cave at the foot of the ridge, located at an altitude of 664 m above sea level.


In the Alpine region of Haute-Savoie, in France, there is one of the deepest caves in the world - the Mirolda Cave. This is the second deepest cave in France.

For a long time, Mirolda was the deepest cave in the world; today the depth of the French grottoes is 1626 meters.

In 1990, its depth was 1221 meters, and in January 2003, after a group of speleologists passed through it, the depth increased to 1733 meters. The height difference of this cave is 1750 meters, and its length is 9 kilometers. The entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of 1880 meters above sea level.

Mirolda Cave - the deepest karst abyss globe. It forms a poorly branched system of galleries and bends of different levels with small wells. Mirolda Cave is an international site for study by scientific expeditions.

The Krubera-Voronya cave, which is located in Abkhazia, is the deepest in the world. She is in the area mountain range Arabica, its depth is 2190 meters. deepest karst cave is a series of numerous wells connected by galleries and climbs.

This “abyss” has an entrance that is located above two thousand meters above sea level. From a depth of about 1000 meters, the central branch branches, going further into the depths with its numerous “tentacles”.

The Krubera-Voronya cave holds more than one world record. Its underground waters give life to itself short river on the planet - Reprua, which is only 18 meters long. After its short run, it flows into the Black Sea.

The deepest cave in the world is the Krubera-Voronya cave.

The most interesting fact associated with the “bottomless cave” is that it is home to an animal from a series of springtails that existed 450 million years ago. Scientists discovered it at a depth of 1980 meters and gave this underground inhabitant the name Plutomurus ortobalaganensis. I would like to note that no one lives deeper than this creature in the world.




The cave was first discovered and explored by speleologists from Georgia in 1960. They studied it to a depth of 95 meters. Then the cave received its first name in honor of A.A. Kruber, who was the father of Russian karstology. Many expeditions sank deeper and deeper underground, reaching new heights. These people don't lack courage. Their courage was rewarded with more and more interesting discoveries.

Krubera-Voronya cave in Abkhazia.

The second part of the name, Voronya, was given to the cave in the mid-80s of the 20th century. This is what Kyiv speleologists called it, who explored the cave to a depth of 340 meters. To date, the diving record in Krubera-Voronya belongs to speleologist from Ukraine Gennady Samokhin. He managed to descend to a depth of 2191 meters in 2007.

USA expedition to the Krubera-Voronya cave, August 2004. Video.

12 kilometers from Gagra, at the top of the Arabica mountain range, is the deepest cave in the world - the Krubera-Voronya cave. As of 2014, its explored depth is 2196 meters. The entrance to the Krubera cave is located in the Orto-Balagan tract, at an altitude of approximately 2250 meters above sea level. This grandiose cave was discovered in 1960 by Georgian speleologists; they named it in honor of the founder of Russian karst studies A.A. Kruber. First, the upper 95 meters of the cave were explored. In 1968, speleologists from Krasnoyarsk continued to study the Krubera cave; they reached a depth of 210 meters. In 1982-1987, Kyiv speleologists descended to a depth of 340 meters, and they gave the cave a second name - Voronya. The following studies began after the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. In 1999, Kyiv speleologists reached the next depth, which was 700 meters. A year later, the explored depth of the Krubera cave was 1,410 meters, and in 2001, speleologists dropped to 1,710 meters. At this depth, an expedition of Ukrainian and Moscow speleologists achieved a new world record. Depth of previous explored deepest cave world Jean Bernard in France was 1602 meters. Further progress of the speleologists was blocked by a powerful blockage. In 2003, through a side branch of the cave, speleologists were able to go deeper, up to 1680 meters. A year later, the explored depth of the cave was 1775 meters, which again became a world record, and a few months later - 1840 meters. In October 2004, speleologists passed the 2-kilometer mark and reached a depth of 2080 meters. As a result of subsequent diving of the cave through bottom siphons, its explored depth to date is 2196 meters. Research of the Krubera Cave is carried out by the Cavex and USA speleological groups.

The Krubera Cave is of karst origin; it is formed by vertical wells connected by climbers and galleries. The deepest plumbs reach 110-152 meters. At a depth of 200 meters, the cave branches into two branches - Nekuibyshevskaya and Main. After a depth of 1300 meters, the Main Branch splits multiple times. In the bottom part, at a depth of 1400 to 2190 meters, 8 siphons have been explored. From a depth of 1600 meters, the Krubera cave is embedded in black limestone. The temperature in the cave increases by 2-3°C with every thousand meters, and according to the same pattern, the underground river becomes fuller. When it comes into contact with a muddy bottom, the transparency of the water disappears. There is no vegetation in the Krubera cave (except for mold in the speleologists' camps). Rarely, up to a depth of 1400 meters, several species of insects can be seen.

On leaving rocks The underground river forms the shortest river in the world - the Reprua. Its length from the mountain source to the Black Sea is only 18 meters. However, the power of groundwater is enough to supply water to the entire Gagra. Reprua is one of the coldest rivers Black Sea coast Caucasus.

 

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