10 Deepest Caves in the World
Sun, May 18, 2008
Image via Plamen Stoev
Long ago, our ancestors were using caves as shelter from wild animals and the forces of nature. Perhaps, this base necessity however, has always been eclipsed by man’s curiosity and desire to explore the mystical and enigmatic air inside the abyss. In the past, Environmental Graffiti has explored some amazing uses of caves – from discotheques, temples and underground cities to hotels and primary schools. That’s only scratching at the surface however. Today, with all sorts of equipment, caving has turned into something of an extreme sport - it involves climbing, crawling and sometimes even swimming. Looking at the most extreme end then, what about those caves that create the enigma, that fuel the stuff of legends; caves that appear bottomless and that seem to extend to the very center of the earth? What are the ten deepest caves on our planet?
10. Cehi 2
Slovenia’s deepest cave was mapped by Italian explorers from the Club Alpino Italiano of Trieste. They published a very interesting document, called Progressione 50: although it’s in Italian, you can see how the expedition went inside the Cehi 2 (or Ceki 2). The cave, which is in the Canin Massif, is located in the Western Julian Alps, on the Italian-Slovenian border. The alpinists managed to go as deep as 4928 feet (1502 m). To put this in perspective, the depth is over twice the height of the tallest man-made structure in the world.
9. Sima de la Cornisa - Torca Magali
This is a caving system in the Picos de Europa mountains in Spain. An international team of speleologists including Valencian Silvino Villa and the Belgian Jan Masschelein explored the cave last summer and managed to go down, in what they call a “bottomless pit”, to 4944 feet (1507 m).
Image via 1
8. Shakta Vjacheslav Pantjukhina
As you notice from the next few items on the list, the Bzybsky Massif in Georgia is renowned and very rich in caves. More than 400 are present and just one of them that made it to our list of the deepest caves in the world is the Shakta Vjacheslav Pantjukhina. It’s 4948 feet (1508) m deep.
Image copyright 1
7. Sarma
The seventh deepest cave in the world is in the Caucuses range, in Abkhazia, Georgia and it goes down up to 5062 feet (1543 m). Speleologists that attended the expeditions from December 18, 2007 to January 12, 2008, mentioned that Sarma has the biggest potential to surpass Voronja and break the world record for being the deepest cave. They are still exploring the interior of this unfathomable enigma.
Images via 1
6. Torca del Cerro del Cuevon also known as T-33 and La Torca de las Saxifragas
Together, these two form the deepest cave in Spain. Located in the Picos de Europa mountains in the northern coast of the country, there are very few entrances to the cave, thus rendering it incredibly difficult to explore, so much so, that is considered to be the most technically difficult in the world. It took explorers 3 days to go to 5213 feet (1589 m) down.
Images via 1
5. Reseau Jean Bernard
Also known as the Gouffre Jean-Bernard or simply Jean Bernard, this is a 5256 feet (1602m) deep cave in the French Alps, in Samoëns. The cave has at least 8 entrances and was first discovered by the Groupe Vulcain back in 1959. Until 1980, it was considered to be the deepest cave in the world. Despite this, professional cavers consider the Jean Bernard not very interesting to climb.
Images via 1
4. Vogelshacht and Lamprechtsofen
A Polish Expedition (pdf link) connected the two caves: Vogelshacht and Lamprechtsofen, located in the Leoganger Steinberger area, in Salzburg, Austria. The cave system has so far been proven to be 5354 feet (1632 m) deep. Incredible really, that’s over a mile. Notwithstanding this, explorations continue, so this could be only the tip of the iceberg.
Images via Jochen Duckeck/showcaves.com, 2, 3
3. Gouffre Mirolda
From 9 to 12 January in 2003, an expedition exploring the Gouffre Mirolda cave in France, found that it was connected with the Lucien Coudlier, breaking the record for the world’s deepest cave . The cave measured 5685 feet (1733m) while the world record at the time was 5610 feet (Voronja cave). It was the first cave to be explored below 1 km. The record however, was beaten within a matter of years.
2. Illuzia-Snezhnaja-Mezhonnogo
Two times larger than the world’s deepest cave, the Illuzia-Snezhnaja-Mezhonnogo cave is the second deepest in the world. Located on the Bzyb massif in Abkhazia, Georgia, the cave is renowned for being dangerous and very difficult to work in.
Images via 1
A team lead led by Aleksey Shelepin, in July 2007, came out with a very spectacular discovery giving birth to the cave system Illuzia-Sneznaja-Mezonnogo. Apparently there are two caves, Illuzia (Illusion) and Sneznaja (Snowy), that connect together and go down 5,751 feet (1,753 meters).
1. Krubera-Voronja Cave
Also known as the Cave of Kruber, Voronja is the deepest cave in the world with recent measurements extending to a total depth of 7188 feet (2191 m). It was the first cave to be explored to a depth of more than 2 km down.
On August 5th 2007, an international expedition with 56 members went in and the interesting thing is, they said that the cave system could be deeper. “The caving game is far from over. It won’t be; not as long as deeper abysses call out to be explored” said Alexander Klimchouk, a renowned speleologist.
The Crows’ Cave (that what it means) is located in Georgia in the Arabika Massif of the Gagra Range, near the coast of the Black Sea.
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Ms. Farlow’s Biology Blog :) » Blog Archive » 10 DEEEEEPEST CAVES IN THE WORLD… Says:
May 21st, 2008 at 8:02 pm[...] Guess what: they’re all in Europe (unless you want to argue about the location of Georgia). Some of them run a mile or more deep into the earth, although to actually go a mile deep, you’d have to trek or rappel for miles and miles. The world’s deepest cave for now is 7188 feet (2191 m) deep, although with research, that record can always be broken by those who feel the need to explore the “bottomless pits” of the world. Link [...]
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May 19th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
your mom’s butthole is way deeper.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
How did you come up with this list? Lechugilla Cave should be the 5th deepest in the world, yet it is nowhere to be found on your list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechuguilla_Cave
May 19th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Pictures like these make me realize how small we humans are. Just amazing!!
May 19th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
His moms butthole certainly wasn’t made so deep by your little penis stemmy.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Absolutely amazing!
But, are the deepest caves all in Europe due to some geological features or is it that speleology is not as developed or popular in other continents?
And a second question, what is it that voids these caverns of matter? Underwater rivers?
May 19th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Why dont they just drop down a GPS tracking device once they get down to 7,000 ft and see how far it goes.
scientests alway shave to be scientifc
May 19th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
stemmy, while correct and rather funny…. I take offense that you would say such things without providing the necessary pictures as evidence.
Good day Sir.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
No, it just felt that way because you are so small.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
This is pretty cool. I have always had interest in caves but never read much on them.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
scary places …
May 19th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
All this caving will disappear when some new tech Sat. in space can see clear through the planet and map all the caves under 24 hours.
At this point it will be a race to see who can plant the flag at the bottom of the world first.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Then you’re not really interested in caves…
May 19th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
GPS only works by receiving a time encoded signal from at least four of the positioning satellites and those signals will not penetrate rock. You’d be better off dropping an altimeter with and radio transmitter but I still think you’d have issues. Most caves I’ve seen are not straight shots down.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
So… how do you measure it? From the surface, or from sea level?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I usually measure mind from the base. If you trim the sack, it looks bigger.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I’m wondering where the deepest caves are that are accessible my non-professionals are.
I figure most deep caves have an element of danger, but I imagine there are plenty of places where you can go on an expidition quite deep?
May 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Adrian
Lechugilla Cave is only 1,604 ft deep.
You must be an upcoming contestant on the “smarter than a 5th grader” show. — Good Luck, yer gonna need it
May 19th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Adrian Bet you feel stupid
Read your wikipedia article again.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Guy above me beat me to it =O
May 19th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
First off, GPS is line of sight. If the device can not literally see the satellite it won’t tell you a thing.
Secondly your question assumes it is a hole in the ground that shoots straight down to 7k feet. Caves do not work this way. you may go down 1200 feet and have to move laterally for a few hundred feet to find another abyss then start down that one.
this should be relatively obvious when you read it takes them 3 days to get down 7,000 feet.
May 20th, 2008 at 12:04 am
That cave is the fifth LONGEST in the world. These pictures are of impressive depth-drops, not long caves that some sniveling brat brings up to play “stump the blogger.”
Adrian FTW! Watch out for his mad wikipedia skillz0rz!!!
May 20th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I have only been spelunking once, but never had the chance to go down so far! Wow those are deep! Thanks for posting all the pic’s too!
May 20th, 2008 at 12:37 am
That cave is the 5th LONGEST! not deepest… Lechuguilla Cave is only 489m deep.
Read before you write.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Abkhazia is NOT part of Georgia. It has won its independence against Georgian policies of pure genocide and has no intention of ever having anything to do with that country. The caves there are pretty awesome though, I’ve been to some…
May 20th, 2008 at 2:48 am
GPS is not “line of sight”, if so, why does it work in a building? It’s line of transmission, and generally, GPS pickup is worse than that of cell phones, your standard GPS struggles with reception in a SUBWAY, these caves are several KM deep, you’d still be in the top 10 million deepest caves when the GPS lost reception.
This assumes that it’s a straight shaft, which caves almost never are.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Ding-a-ling-a-ling, cowbell of shame on you.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I am credited with taking the first cave photo but that is not true. That photo was taken by Plamen Stoev. His original photo can be found on Flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87103132@N00/1388635050
Please update the article text with the correct photographer.
Brian
May 20th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Thanks Brian - we have updated it.
Chris
May 20th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Unless they find a long lost race of lizard people or something, why should anyone care?
May 20th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I’d like to see some base jumping into these caves like they do in Mexico! Parachuting 2km into a cave of darkness??? AWESOME!!!!! Then, the trick is, how do you get out… if by the method used in Mexico, it would take hours! Nevertheless, it’d be more entertaining than golf, I think! Love the pix!! Thanks for posting this article!!! Nice work! :)
May 20th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Can you host your own images? This fad of having the images for your site hosted on a photo hosting website is a huge step backward. Why? Do you not own your own web space? Many firewalls block these image hosting websites and prohibit many viewers from seeing any of your pictures. So your blog looks like a defunct page from the 90’s. Host your own images!
May 20th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
To Axel:
It is geology that determines the depth potential of a cave. places like the US have developeda dn popular speleology, but the rock is not thick enough for caves to be that deep. The countries mentioned, in addition to mexico and china, are about the only places with record-setting limestone.
The caves in china have not been explored to their full potential, because caving is not as saccesible there. The caves in mexico are being extensively explored, but the caves are very long in addition to deep, so it takes much more effort to get far down.
And yes, caves are formed by water flowing through imperfections in limestone, eventually eroding them until there is human-size passage.
And to the question about how depth is measured, it is vertical extent from the entrance to the bottom, not in relation to sea level.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
what about Mel’s Hole somewhere in the usa. he was on Art Bell show something about droping over 85,000 feet fishing line in the hole and never hit bottom. i think you can still read his story on AOL search. just put in Mel’s hole. it a pretty wired story. something about the gov. took his land now there down under.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
May 20th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
What is the name of the world’s
longest unexplored cave?
Which is the deepest undiscovered
cave?
May 20th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Cavers have my utmost respect. It’s not for the claustrophobic. I’ve been in a few caves, and even in the smaller ones you can get into a heap of trouble fast. They’re filthy, cold, and packed with dangers like breakdowns and squeezes.
With these giant pit caves, you have to be in top marathoner shape, because you essentially are climbing up and down a rope most of the time, and if your legs or arms give out, you are in major trouble.
That said, caves are really cool, and I mean that figuratively.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
A lot of guys have done some backdoor cave exploring on me, if you know what I mean. wink-wink
May 20th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
It says longest in the world, not deepest, according the article you posted it’s only 1,604ft deep, about a 1/3rd the depth of these listed above.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I’m wondering??? If any cave is unexplored or undiscovered, how or why would you think that anyone would have information on it’s length or depth or any information at all? It is UNEXPLORED/UNDISCOVERED .
May 20th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
While I can appreciate to efforts of these speluncter folks, these caves are far from reaching the center of the earth. All are in mountain ranges. Even the deepest of the caves might reach sea-level. Tell me I am wrong.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
susieq, you idiot. it was an obvious joke you moron.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:54 am
The top of Mt. Semnoz in the French Alps (Hte.Savoie)near Lake Annecy is covered with funnel- type holes of all sizes_ inches to yards_ where the ground has collapsed requiring care on even a casual stroll. The bodies of cows that frequently fell in (before protective fencing) have appeared (and be identified by marks and cowbells) in lake Annecy, Lake Bourget and Lake Leman. These lakes form a rough triangle of way over 50 kilometers from the top of the mountain.I don’t know how far spelunkers have penetrated the caves but know that the entire mountain is honeycombed and practically hollow. Lake Annecy has a so-called bottomless chasm on the side opposite to the location of the mountain, yet that is where carcasses have surfaced, so the caves must extend beneath and across the width of the lake.
Does anyone know more about Mt. Semnoz? e-mail me. Esmi
May 21st, 2008 at 1:07 am
Why cant you just enjoy the thrill of discovery and the mystery of the unknown underground. Caves are beautiful places and at times filled with danger where only the experienced should go. Think before you spout off. Caving is a science that many enjoy. Good luck to cavers and pray it goes deep.
May 21st, 2008 at 4:04 am
have you noticed that the left hand image of cehi 1image 1 on the left side near the top 1/3 of the way from the left looks like a man i see a face a coat a right arm and handstrange or what
May 21st, 2008 at 4:42 am
after your stupid/assinine article that bashed Phish fans…i vowed to never come back to your crappy website. My plan was working until i was linked back to this crappy site via another site. Nice try but your site still blows!
The publisher’s of environmental grafitti allegedly smoke/consume crack!
May 21st, 2008 at 7:49 am
Well, according to websites, Wikipedia isn’t reliable because it was created by people and cannot be considered a reliable source. (i.e. Stephen Colberts’ “truthiness” has now become a word on the site.) Alas, our country’s language has suffered a downfall also with such words as bootylicious being added to our dictionaries as well.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:39 am
Wow… I didn’t realize there were so many places I had never heard of. Its all amazing.
I want to be able to explore and get into those places one day.
Its a tad scary… by the looks but I guess I want the experience. =]
Love from
13 year old girl…
May 24th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Well the cave divers seem to be diving below sea level.However all the cavers that reached the center of the earth melted before they could get back with the survey information.
May 24th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
speleology - was very interesting to read ….. man ….we humans deserve a salute where all we have reached and what all we think of ….. the human mind ..ha ha ha
June 6th, 2008 at 9:41 am
now if we could just figure out how to get the entire state of texas into one of these…
July 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Usually, morons whose limitations far exceed their curiosity (that would be you) would have long since moved on to dumber and more superficial sites before reaching here. How did you get here? Did your mutt forget to log off your computer last night, or were you googling “Dumbist” and typo’d “Deepest”?
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Edgar Rice Burroughs has long ago proved that a John Carter-like character has wormed his way down to the center of the earth in a giant screw machine. And you can’t get any deeper than the center, just as you can’t get deeper into a forest than the center. So, what’s all the fuss about?
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
nerd
September 9th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Not too keen on caves
November 12th, 2008 at 11:48 am
How do they determine the depth? Do they have some kind of gauge that they use? Obviously as mentioned, gps type devices would never work.
Obviously they cant just determine it by the length of rope they use or something because they move lateral.
I am maybe missing the obvious here, but it seems like it would be hard to figure out.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Great caves!