- Getaways.These towns in Spain are perfect to get lost and change of scenery
- Adventure, descent to the most amazing caves on the planet
It takes up more space than a 40-storey building, which translated into meters is equivalent to 200 meters high, 175 wide and at least 6.5 kilometers long. We are talking about the largest cave in the world, the Hang Son Doong (whose meaning is the Mountain River Cave), located in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in the Vietnamese province of Quang Binh.
There, this nature giant integrated into the list of wonders of the Guinness Book of Records has been formed. In it we enter on the occasion of World Cave Day, which is celebrated this March 15. Its discovery took place in 1991 thanks to a farmer from the area that was passing through there. Due to the complicated accessibility (it can only be penetrated by abseiling ), the finding was forgotten until, 18 years later, it retraced its steps and was able to locate again.
The first discovery
In this way, in April 2009, a team of British researchers led by spelunker Howard Limbert carried out a six-hour inspection through the jungle until reaching Han Son Boong. Then they managed to partially discover it and certify that it was the largest cave in the world ever explored (the rest can be discovered here). Since 2013, in addition, the company Oxalis has even organized tours within it.
Of course, the scientists noticed a river that collided with a wall of the grotto and reappeared in another nearby, so that the dimensions that they originally believed could increase. And they found this last year, when experienced divers Christopher Jewell, Jason Mallinson, John Volanthen and Richard Stanton, who participated in the rescue of children trapped in a Thai grotto in June 2018, discovered a passage that connected to that of Hang Tung.
What was their surprise when they realized that the underground passageway was not 25 meters deep, as was originally believed, but somewhat less than 93 meters below sea level . Due to the difficult orography, they could not descend more than 77 meters, but they confirmed the dimensions of the cave with plumb lines. Thus, the new cave would form part of the initial one, achieving a total magnitude of nine kilometers long, with a cavity 200 meters high and up to 175 meters wide.
The Vietnamese grotto has a large number of similar jewels around the world, such as that of Naica in Mexico, considered the largest crystal cave in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The largest is 11 meters long, the same as a school bus. His little sister is, however, much closer to us, in Almería, where the Pulpí geode is located.
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