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. The depth of the previous explored deepest cave in the 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.

At the exit of the underground river rocks, the world's shortest river, the Reprua, is formed. 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.

The Internet is a funny thing. At the same time that it brings great benefits to modern man, it also carries a lot of rubbish and not everyone can cope with the flow of information that pours into the network. The Internet is very relaxing and contributes to the fact that most people stop thinking, frivolously trusting everything they encounter on the Internet. However, I am not going to discuss the usefulness and harmfulness of the Internet here.

From the Editor:
Krubera-Voronya is the deepest cave in the world (depth 2196 m), located in the Arabica mountain range in Abkhazia. The entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of about 2250 m above sea level in the Orto-Balagan tract
The cave, which is part of the Arabica mountain range, 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. Research continues to this day and is carried out by: the Ukrainian Speleological Association (USA) under the leadership of Gennady Samokhin and Russian Association cave explorers, Cavex club

Over the course of several years, this stack of photographs appears on various sites and spreads very quickly on social networks, often by people who have never been to this cave (of course, those who were there would not spread it, but there are billions of times less of them :) ).
To be honest, I haven’t been there everywhere myself, but many of the photos do not at all correspond to the specifics of the cave. That's why I had a desire to understand all the photographs. I must say that it was quite difficult.

I spent two evenings on 10 photos and realized that Google itself already believed that all this was Krubera-Voronya :) - there are about 500 links for each photo and everyone insists that this is the deepest cave and invites you on an excursion there and all sorts of other oddities. After all, it’s easier than ever to touch the secrets of the Universe without leaving the couch. (The funniest text appearing with these photographs was the proposal to imagine 6 Eiffel Towers in height, and then, relaxing and looking at the pictures below, imagine how you descend from such a height :) into such beauty).

And so, I begin to destroy the photomyths about the Krubera-Voronya cave.

The first photos I identified are the works of National Geographic photographer Stephen L. Alvarez. In fact, Steven Alvarez was in Krubera-Voronya and participated in the USA expedition “Call of the Abyss” as a photographer for National Geographic. Apparently, the little man who first began distributing false photos knew about Alvarez’s trip to Krubera-Voronya and “stole” photographs from him, not realizing that he had also been in many other caves :), located far beyond the borders of Abkhazia.

Ellison Cave, northwestern Georgia, USA (Ellison's Cave, Northwest Georgia, USA), Photo by Stephen L. Alvarez.
Ellison's Cave is the 12th deepest cave in the United States and has the deepest vertical free-fall well (without ledges) in the continental United States, called the Fantastic Pit, 178.6 m deep - the same one shown in the photo.
The depth of Ellison's Cave is 324 m, length is 19.31 km. The cave and the surrounding area are supervised by the Department Natural resources State of Georgia and is open to the public all year round. Due to the technical complexity and of a dangerous nature The caves are explored only by the most experienced and capable speleologists. General information about the cave is on Wikipedia.

Short video presentation by Steven Alvarez:

Kabal Cave, Actun Kabal is one of four caves in the Chiquibul Cave System, which are located along the Chiquibul River, Cayo, Belize, Central America. In addition to the village of Cabal, the Chiquibul Cave System includes the village of Actun Tunkul (Tunkul) and the village of Cebada Cave, located in Belize, as well as Xibalba, which is located in Guatemala.
Cabal is top part The Chiquibul cave system extends for this moment 12 km and amplitude 95m. The cave contains one of the largest halls in the world, the Chiquibul Chamber, measuring 250m by 150m.
Another one of the largest halls of the Cave system - the Belize Chamber with dimensions of 300x150 m and a height of 65 m is located in the village of Aktun Tunkul. The cave is also of archaeological value - Mayan pottery was found there, lying in darkness for about 2,000 years.

Mystery Falls Cave located in Hamilton County, Tennessee, USA. The length of the cave is 416.7 m, the amplitude is 100.6 m. The depth of the well is 83m.

Conley Hole Cave (the author of the photo writes it as Conoly Hole) located near the town of Viola (Viola, Tennessee, USA). Conley Hole is a bottle-type well 50m deep. The diameter of the entrance well is about 6 m. The base of the bottle is about 240m in diameter. In 1973, the cave was designated by NNL (National Natural Landmarks) as one of the finest examples of a bottle well in the United States. Permission from the local landowner is required to visit the cave.

Hytop Drop Cave, Franklin County, Tennessee, USA. Located in the Walls of Jericho Canyon (also called the Grand Canyon of the South) near the Alabama border. The depth of the cave is 52m, length – 637m. The photo shows a 30m entrance well.
(author’s note. In Krubera-Voronya in a T-shirt, you won’t even dare to go down the entrance well :))

Cave of Swallows (ESA ALA, Sótano de las Golondrinas) is located in the Mexican state of St. Louis Potesi. The depth of the cave ranges from 333 to 376 meters. The fact is that the entrance to the cave is on a slope and the bottom of the cave itself is also inclined. The cave also has many narrow passages leading to deeper levels. However, these passages have not yet been fully explored.

Visiting the cave is limited by local authorities from 12 to 16 hours, so as not to disturb the peace of the birds inhabiting the cave (at this time they fly off in a flock to hunt).

Part of the filming of James Cameron's famous film "Sanctum" took place in the Cave of Swallows.

And this is a photo of Kruber-Voronya, which was taken by Steven Alvarez during the USA expedition “Call of the Abyss” in 2004 , but for some reason they are not found in the lists of photographs that lure people on excursions to the Deepest Cave of the World.

Some of these photographs can be found on the website of the author - Steven Alvarez. All other photographs with their names and descriptions are available on the special National Geographic website - right at home page enter the name of the cave you are interested in (in English) or the surname Alvarez into the search engine and enjoy the works of this photographer (these photographs can even be purchased directly there on the website.

I will continue to destroy photo myths. Another American cave, but by a different author

Piercy's Cave, West Virginia, USA

Piercy's Cave, West Virginia, USA. A horizontal cave with a length of 1867m and an amplitude of 23m. Photo by Dave Bunnel - photographer and former NSS news editor.

By this name, Google shows another cave - Piercy's Mill Cave - these are different caves.

In this cave there is no detailed information I didn’t find it, except for its characteristics, which are on the well-known caverbob website, where almost all the statistical data on world and American caves is presented.

All photos were taken in Miao Keng Cave, which is located near the mountain village of Tian Xing, Wulong District, Chongqing, China (Tian Xing, Wulong, Chongqing, China). Miao Keng, together with five other caves, make up a cave system (whose name I did not find). The depth of the system is 1020 m, length – 35.5 km.
The photos were taken by Manchester-based photographer Robbie Sean, who spent 2 months on the expedition with the researchers. In the first and third pictures, the well of the Miao Keng cave is one of the deepest wells in the world (491m). Thanks to him, the cave is also called China's big shaft.
The descent into this well took the researchers two hours. The second photo shows the underground river at the bottom of Miao Keng.

Website of photographer Robert Shawn. Many of his photos are on Instagram.

And the location of this shooting should be familiar to many fans of Karabi (Crimea)

The author of the photo is Che3000, a user of the “live journal”, where he posted a report about his trip to Karabi. Moreover, the report contains the phrase: “Do not confuse it with the deepest cave in the world, the Krubera-Voronya cave, which is located in Abkhazia.” Apparently, not everyone is interested in reading other people's reports. By the way, in some photo tales about Krubera-Voronya I came across several more photos from this report. The photographs are very beautiful and high quality. It’s just a pity that it’s important for people to climb onto some beautiful cliff for the sake of a couple of photographs that look very beautiful even without the little people. And in the report there is a photo of the cave mark, but to understand it, you need to be a speleologist :).

From general information about Krubera, Karabi, Crimea - a vertical mine, 62m deep. The length of the cave is 280m. Named in honor of A.A. Kruber, an outstanding Soviet physical geographer, founder of Russian and Soviet karst studies.

All the photographs are impressively beautiful, just as the phrase “The Deepest Cave in the World” itself is impressive. But that doesn't mean that everything beautiful photos caves should be called the deepest cave of the world Krubera-Voronya. After all, they are all unique in their own way - each has its own Name, its own history, its own characteristics. We don’t name all Ukrainians, for example, actresses Angelina Jolie, or all the cars that drive around hometown, - Ferrari.
Or all speleologists - YuKasy :). I believe that we cavers should convey this to those who do not know it. Of course, the USA will not print brochures with these photos and invite its members of the Association to distribute them on the streets, as all sorts of godly aunties do :). I wrote this article so that in case of Once again someone posts information about the Deepest Cave and once again gives out a bunch of these pictures, or offers an excursion there with promises to see all these beauties, you could refer to it (the article).
And after this article there will also be an article with real photos from Kruber-Voronya, which we will promote.

Editor's note: And this real photos Krubera-Voronya caves, taken during last year’s USA expeditions “Call of the Abyss”

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 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.

Crow Cave (Kruber, Krubera-Voronya caves) is the deepest explored cave in the world. It is located in the Arabica massif in the Gagra ridge in Abkhazia, Georgia. It is part of the system to which the Arabica Cave belongs. The cave is branched into two branches: Nekuibyshevskaya and Main, which, in turn, branches into several smaller branches. The depth of the first is about 1300 meters, the second is about 2196 meters.

The depth of the cave is 2140 (± 9) meters. The previous record for depth of 1710 meters was set in 2001 by a Russian-Ukrainian team. In 2004, over the course of three expeditions, the depth of the explored territory increased each time. At this stage, the Ukrainian teams crossed the 2000 m mark below ground level. This happened for the first time in the history of speleology. In October 2005, new, unexplored parts were found by the CAVEX team, and the explored cave became even deeper. This expedition confirmed that the depth of the cave currently reaches 2140 (± 9) meters in depth.

A karst cave of a subvertical type is a series of wells connected by climbers and galleries. The deepest plumbs: 115, 110 and 152 meters. At a depth of 200 meters, the cave branches into two main branches: Nekuibyshevskaya (depth 1697 meters in 2010) and the Main branch (current depth 2191 meters). Starting at a depth of 1300 meters, the main branch branches into many other branches. More than 8 siphons are known in the bottom part (located at depths from 1400 to 2144 meters). The cave is located in a limestone mass, and the bottom part from a depth of 1600 meters is laid in black limestone. The shortest river in the world, the Reprua, is fed by the waters of the Krubera-Voronya cave.

The cave was discovered and first explored to a depth of 95 m by Georgian speleologists in 1960. Then it received its first name: Krubera Cave, in honor of the father of Russian karst studies A.A. Krubera.

The forgotten cave was explored a second time by Krasnoyarsk speleologists in 1968. They used the name of the cave: Siberian.

In 1982-1987, the cave was remembered again. This time it was explored by Kyiv speleologists to a depth of 340 m. A third name appeared: Voronya Cave. After the Abkhaz-Georgian war of 1992-1993, the republic was cut off from free visits by speleologists. Work resumed in August 1999, when the people of Kiev reached a depth of 700 m in one expedition. In August-September 2000, the same team reached a depth of 1410 m. In January 2001, an expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association, with the participation of Moscow speleologists, set a world record, reaching at 1710 m. At this point the branch was plugged with an impassable blockage. In August 2003, the Cavex team dived the fourth siphon in the side branch and stopped at a depth of 1680 m with a free continuation. In July 2004, the same team in the same branch set a new world record - 1775 m. In August of the same year, the USA expedition explored another branch. And again the world record is 1840 m. Two months later, in October 2004, the USA organized a new expedition. On October 19, for the first time in the history of speleology, the 2-kilometer barrier was overcome - 2080 m.

For many decades, the title of the deepest cave belonged to the French caves Pierre Saint Martin and Jean Bernard, which go more than 1600 meters into the bowels of the earth. However, in 1960, an event occurred that gradually began to deprive them of leadership. Speleologists working in Abkhazia on the Arabica massif discovered a previously unknown cave. That year they managed to descend only 150 meters, which, of course, not only did not give the right to call the new cave the deepest, but even to rank it among the deepest caves in the world. The only thing that speleologists were able to do was to give the new cave a name - Kruber Cave in honor of the founder of Russian and Soviet karstology (the science of the effect of water on rocks) Alexander Kruber.

Then a long story began, reminiscent of an auction, which happens with any cave after discovery: each successive speleological expedition announced reaching a new depth - 210, 340, 710 meters... It is worth noting that just at around 340 meters the Krubera cave received a new name - Voronya. Later, both of these unofficial names merged into one official one - Krubera-Voronya.

The deepest point is accessible to visit from two other entrances to the cave of the Arabica system: Kuibyshev Cave and Henry's Abyss, which are located further on the mountainside. The entrance to the cave from another representative of the system, the Berchil Cave, is located 100 m higher than the Voronya Cave. The total depth of the ligament is approximately 2240.

In 2002, a Russian-Ukrainian team of speleologists was officially recognized as the discoverer of the deepest cave on the planet.

THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF SPELEOLOGISTS has registered the depth record set by the Russian-Ukrainian team of cave explorers CAVEX. The brave souls from this team managed to descend to a depth of 1710 meters - this is the length of the underground well of the Voronya cave, which is located in the Arabica mountain range in Abkhazia. To this day it is the deepest cave on the planet. We had to wait two years for official recognition of this record - these are the formal requirements of the International Union. The discoverers themselves say that the record of this cave is the merit of “all Soviet speleologists.”

Speleologists have known for a long time that there are many deep caves in these mountains. At the beginning of the 20th century, the famous French karstologist Martel, who conducted research in those parts, came to the conclusion that there were vast underground voids in Arabica. But it turned out that the entrance to the Voronya cave, which later turned out to be the deepest on the planet, was found only in the 60s. Georgian speleologists who discovered the well tried to explore it, but retreated before the passage was too narrow. They classified the cave as shallow but promising.

In the 80s, Soviet scientists conducted an experiment in Arabica to trace groundwater and once again confirmed the presence of the world's deepest karst hydraulic system there. What did the researchers do? They colored the water of underground rivers with the harmless substance fluorescin and supplied water sources at the foot of the mountain with traps, which soon detected the release of fluorescein. It became clear that the cave complex was practically unexplored. The mystery remained: is it possible for a person to go into underground tunnels? This could only be verified in practice.
In the mid-80s, Kyiv speleologists made several attempts to conquer Voronya. Using a rock hammer and a hammer drill, they were able to “break through” to the 340-meter mark. The cave didn't let us go any further. A passage that was too narrow would require a lot of time to overcome. The conquest of Voronya was postponed indefinitely.

Then war came to Abkhazia - not the best time for speleological discoveries. And only in 1999, one of the members of the CAVEX team, Alexey Zhdanovich, “swinged,” as speleologists say, into the window of the cave and discovered the entrance to a new tunnel. “At such moments,” says Denis Provalov, head of CAVEX, “the pulse quickens and the most exciting stage begins - the first ascent. You don’t know what awaits you around the next turn of the gallery and what will happen at the end of a multi-meter well.”

And “around the next corner” a whole series of cascades awaited the daredevils. That time, in 1999, the cave allowed them to reach the 700-meter mark. Further penetration deep into the earth was postponed for another year. “It’s difficult to calculate the time of an expedition when you’re mastering new tunnels,” says Denis Provalov, “because you never know how long it will take to complete a particular section, sooner or later you run out of food, time, and energy, and you have to end the expedition until next year.” .

Usually this is how cave exploration proceeds, step by step. Sometimes the result of several expeditions can be a dead-end gallery, and sometimes you can stumble upon a small window in the wall of a well, which will then become the beginning of a new path. “The cave has gone,” speleologists say in such a situation.
In the summer of 2000, speleologists reached the 1400-meter mark in Voronya. Their premonition told them that this was not the limit.

The CAVEX team returned to Arabica again in January 2001. They had barely set up camp when two guys - Ilya Zharkov and Konstantin Mukhin - went into the cave in the evening to explore. They returned only in the morning. Tired, they nevertheless did not hide their delight: having exhausted the supply of ropes and pitons, they reached a depth of 1680 meters, stopping before the start of a new well. Incredibly, this was already a record! The deepest mark at that time was 1632 meters (the Austrian Lamprechtsofen Cave) did not survive! The next descent of the speleologists increased the depth of Voronya to 1710 meters! The cave ended in a hall with a lake. The hall was given the name “Hall of Soviet Speleologists” in order to emphasize that the record is the result of the work of several generations of speleologists.

According to the rules of the International Union of Speleologists, the establishment of a record must be confirmed detailed map caves. To do this, for several more days the speleologists carried out topographic surveys, took readings from the altimeter - a depth sensor built into a regular watch, and used an eclimeter to measure the angles of the
clone, the azimuth was determined using a compass, and the length of the well was measured by centimeters using a tape measure. Then all the data received was entered into a special notebook with indelible pages. And it was this notebook, as evidence of the record dive, that was sent to the headquarters of the International Union of Speleologists.

In 2005, as part of the next USA expedition, hydraulic leveling was carried out to clarify the depth of the cave.
A series of subsequent expeditions by rival Cavex and USA teams dived through the bottom siphons, increasing the depth of the cave several times. The current record belongs to speleologist Gennady Samokhin.

The first woman to reach a depth of 2140 m was Saule Pankenė from Lithuania. An expedition organized by the Lithuanian speleological club “Aenigma”, consisting of four people and led by Aidas Gudaitis, passed the cave in September 2010.

1960: Georgian karst explorers found the cave and then explored it to a depth of 180 meters.

1968: a Polish-Russian expedition discovered three caves of the Arabica system: Siberian, Heinrich and Berchila.

Early eighties: Kiev residents explored the cave to a depth of 340 meters.

August 1999: The Ukrainian second-tier team discovered windows into a cave at a depth of 230 meters, which led to a branch up to 700 meters.

August 2000: the second echelon of the team continued exploration to a depth of 1200 meters.

September 2000: USA (Ukrainian Speleological Association) and MTDE teams continued exploration to a depth of 1410 meters.

January 2001: The USA and Cavex teams encountered windows at a depth of 1350 meters, which led to a passage at a depth of 1430 meters. The sides of the passage at a depth of 1420 meters turned out to be a tunnel to a site at a depth of 1710 meters.

August 2003: Cavex and Kyiv Club found new sites at a depth of 1660 meters.

July 2004: Cavex team - new discovery, depth - 1810 meters.

August 2004: USA - a side passage was found at a depth of 1660 meters, which led to another at a depth of 1824 meters.

October 2004: USA - descent to a depth of 2080 meters. For the first time in the history of speleology, a group of researchers descended into a cave to a depth of more than 2 kilometers.

August 2001: USA - search for the continuation of the cave in the lower part (1420 m -1710 m).

February 2005: USA - new milestone - 1980 meters depth.

July 2005: Cavex descends from the site at a depth of 1980 meters to a further 160 m. This led to searches at a depth of 2140 meters. During this expedition, three forays were made to a depth of more than two thousand meters.

September 2007: Gennady Samokhin explores a cave at a depth of 2196 meters, which is still a world record.

Video interview with Gennady Samokhin

And this is that very significant dive - the final part of the dive into the Two Captains siphon, the ascent of submariner Gennady Samokhin:

The pioneer of a depth of 2196 meters in the Krubera (Voronya) cave, Gennady Samokhin, believes that the 2200-meter mark can be overcome not only by diving into a siphon...

What was the expedition to Krubera (Voronya) like in 2012?

The expedition was carried out within the framework of the USA project “Call of the Abyss”. Leader Yu. M. Kasyan, 59 participants from 9 countries (Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Spain, Great Britain, Israel, Lebanon, Ireland, Poland). Of these 59 people, three were supposed to dive into “Two Captains” using mixtures, but I was the only one... For the dives, 18 sets of regulators, 31 cylinders with air, trimix, and oxygen were delivered. 150 liters of gasoline for primus stoves, 500 kilograms of food, 3000 batteries were delivered to the underground camps... In total, 7 camps were deployed in the main branch of the cave; the deepest of them (and in general in the world) is “Rebus” - at a depth of 1960 meters. The expedition lasted from July 21 to August 26.

When was the cave discovered and what is its correct name?

The Krubera (Voronya) cave, currently the deepest in the world, was discovered by Georgian speleologists - the Kipiani group - in 1963 and named after Krubera. The depth of its explored part was then 57 meters. At the end of the 1970s, the cave was rediscovered and named Siberian. In the mid-1980s, the cave was discovered for the third time by Ukrainian speleologists and named Voronya. It later turned out that this was all the same cave. I think that the most correct name is the one given by the discoverers - Krubera Cave. As a last resort - Krubera-Voronya.

Sounds like a system...

No, today Krubera-Voronya is one cave with one entrance. Unless someday we will reach its exit into the Black Sea... We have already reached an absolute height in this cave of approximately 40 meters above sea level. Moreover, it is known that the underground river flowing through the cave is unloaded into the sea.

What are the prospects for further “deepening” of the Krubera Cave? Does it make sense to dive even deeper?

It makes sense to dive, but only with a rebreather. The fact is that in the “Two Captains” siphon, the passage is, firstly, quite narrow (about a meter by 60 centimeters, and this gap is located obliquely) and, secondly, very flat. It moved more than 40 meters forward - and only 5 meters deep. In confined spaces, this takes a lot of time - and, accordingly, a lot of breathing gas. And you have to carry this mixture with you in cylinders, which further reduces the speed... I see the only way out: to use a rebreather, a closed-cycle breathing apparatus. This will increase the time reserve many times over - from the current 30 minutes to several hours or more...

The Russians from the Cavex team dived with a rebreather into “Two Captains” - but for some reason they could not advance...

They're just stuck. The fact is that the device they used is placed on the back, and this is very inconvenient in “Two Captains”. You need a rebreather attached to the swimmer's side. I am now looking for such a device and saving money for it.

What is the expected length of the Two Captains Siphon?

Perhaps more than 10 kilometers. It is quite possible that this siphon will continue all the way to the Black Sea...

What other options are there for “deepening” Kruber-Voronya, besides immersion in this siphon? For example, other branches of the cave?...

There are unexplored extensions to Krubera Cave. But it is too early to talk about achieving record depths in them.

How about "digging up", looking for higher entrances?

In the Orto Balagan valley there are several caves hydrologically connected to Krubera Voronja. In particular, this is the Kuibyshevskaya - Genrikhova Abyss - depth 1110 m, the entrance is 30 meters lower than Krubera-Voronya; Berchilskaya - depth 500 m, entrance 120 meters higher; Gnomov - depth 400 m, entrance 50 meters lower; The Little Prince is 50 m deep, the entrance is 15 meters higher, and, moreover, the Little Prince is only 100 meters from the Krubera cave. If we manage to get to Krubera from the Little Prince or from Berchilska, we will get the desired “upward recess”.

What about Martel's cave?

The Martel Cave is located on the right side of the Orto-Balagan valley, but due to geological conditions it develops into the neighboring valley. So if there is any prospect in it greater depth- something completely separate from the Krubera cave...

sources

Until recently, the Krubera cave was considered the deepest not only in Russia, but throughout the world. It is hidden in a mountain range with beautiful name Arabica in Abkhazia. The second popular name is Crow Cave. At the moment, its explored depth is 2199 meters. Speleologists claim that this is not the limit at all. The cave belongs to the karst type and is completely vertical.

Scheme of the Krubera-Voronya cave

The central entrance to the Crow Cave is hidden in the Orto-Balagan area. The height of the mountains here is almost 2260 meters above sea level. The underground cavity belongs to the karst group. It is caves of this type that are distinguished by the greatest depth; they are formed as a result of the dissolution of rocks (limestone, marble, gypsum, chalk, dolomite) in water. Krubera Cave is formed in limestone. Its structure consists of wells following each other, connected by passages of different sizes and climbs. At a depth of approximately 200 meters, the dungeon diverges into two branches: the main one (maximum elevation is 2199 meters) and Nekuibyshevsky (maximum depth is 1679 meters). The name of the second branch came from the fact that they tried to find a connection in it with the neighboring Kuibyshev Cave. From 1300 meters the main branch begins to branch, forming many holes. More than 8 tunnels (i.e. siphons) are open here; they are located on different levels. Water flows through each of them. According to the latest data, the total length of the passages is more than 16 km.

Most likely, the discharge of karst waters becomes possible with the participation of the Agepsta and Reprua rivers. They fill in the cave and appear on the surface near the mountains. It is noteworthy that the Reprua is one of the shortest rivers in the world, its length does not exceed 18 meters and its width is 10 meters.

History of discovery

The Crow Cave was first discovered by a team from the Georgian Geographical Institute named after Bagrationi in 1960. Then they descended only 95 meters. At this moment, the cave received its main name in honor of the founder of Russian karst studies, Alexander Alexandrovich Kruber. It was he, being a professor at Moscow State University, who was the first to begin studying the Gagra massif at the beginning of the 20th century. Then the find was forgotten for several years.

In 1968, a team from the city of Krasnoyarsk descended to 210 meters. Then the cave was given the name Siberian. Nowadays this name is practically not used. And again there is calm. Only in the 1980s did Kyiv speleologists begin to explore the cave. They found themselves at a depth of 340 meters. During this period, another name appeared that became widespread - Voronya Cave.

The Georgian-Abkhaz war that took place in the early 90s cut off Abkhazia from free visits. Speleologists were able to return to these places only before the beginning of the new millennium.

Krubera Cave - the deepest in the world

Until 2017, the Krubera-Voronya cave was indeed considered the deepest in the world. Records have been set one after another since 1999. Then the Kiev detachment was able to descend to 700 meters in one expedition. Exactly a year later they increased the distance to 1410 meters. At the end of January 2001, members of the UCA (stands for “Ukrainian Speleological Association”) and several participants from Moscow were able to achieve a world record of 1710 meters. Before this, the French caves of Pierre Saint Martin and Jean Bernard with a depth of 1600 meters were considered the absolute record holders.

Over the next decade, several competing expeditions moved lower and lower. In 2004, speleologists penetrated to a depth of 2080 meters. In 2005, the CAVEX team discovered new, previously unexplored sections of the cave. The group had to work as hard as possible extreme conditions, requiring immersion in ice water. One of the participants died tragically. Then they were able to reach 2140 meters.

On August 10, 2013, Ukrainian Gennady Sumokhin (member of the USA) set a new world record for the depth of descent underground. He descended to 2199 meters.

A longtime rival of the Krubera cave for the title of “deepest in the world” is the Verevkin cave. It was discovered in the same Arabica region and around the same time. Research works proceeded in parallel at both sites. In 2017, the expedition was able to descend 2204 meters in the Verevkina cave and thereby broke the record of the Krubera cave. A year later, the figure was increased to 2212 meters, when speleologists were able to measure the depth of the lake at the bottom of the cave. As a result, this depth turned out to be below the deepest mark in the Black Sea.

Underground inhabitants

From underground, speleologists brought to the surface several species of previously unknown living organisms. The cave fauna was represented by invertebrate animals: arthropods, several species of sponges, flat and annelids and ciliates. As for vertebrates, several previously unseen fish species and a tailed amphibian were discovered in the depths of the cave.

How to get to Krubera Cave

The cave is located 15 km from the city of Gagra. The most convenient way to get to the mountains is by car or take a taxi. However, there are no excursions to Krubera Cave. It is not a tourist place. Get inside ordinary people You won't be able to do it on your own. Visiting the dungeon is possible only together with an expedition group (with the obligatory presence of climbing equipment and the required level of training).

Crow Cave is a true legend in the world of speleology. Specialists from different countries dream of visiting it. Work continues. Apparently, new depths will be conquered in the near future.