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

Scheme of the cave Krubera-Voronya

The main entrance to the Raven 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 the 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 stiles. At a depth of approximately 200 meters, the dungeon splits into two branches: the main one (the maximum mark is 2199 meters) and the Nekuibyshevskoye (the maximum depth is 1679 meters). The name of the second branch came from the fact that they tried to find a connection with the neighboring Kuibyshev cave in it. From a mark of 1300 meters, the main branch begins to branch out, forming many holes. More than 8 tunnels (i.e. siphons) are open here, they are located at 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 up in the cave and appear on the surface near the mountains. It is noteworthy that Reprua is one of the shortest rivers in the world, its length does not exceed 18 meters, and its width is 10 meters.

Discovery history

For the first time, the Voronya Cave was discovered by a detachment from the Georgian Geographical Institute named after Bagrationi in 1960. Then they went down only 95 meters. At that moment, the cave got 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 first began to study the massif in Gagra 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 already. Then the cave was given the name Siberian. Now this name is practically not used. And again calm. Only in the 1980s Kiev speleologists began to explore the cave. They were at a depth of 340 meters. During this period, another name appeared, which became widespread - the Voronya cave.

The Georgian-Abkhaz war that took place in the early 1990s cut off free visits to Abkhazia. Speleologists got the opportunity 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 Kyiv detachment was able to descend to 700 meters in one expedition. Exactly one 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. Prior to this, the French caves Pierre Saint Martin and Jean Bernard with a depth of 1600 meters were considered absolute champions.

The next decade, several competing expeditions moved lower and lower. In 2004, cavers 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 in the most extreme conditions, requiring immersion in icy water. One of the participants tragically died. Then they were able to reach 2140 meters.

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

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

Underground inhabitants

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

How to get to the Krubera Cave

The cave is located 15 km from the city of Gagra. The most convenient way to reach the mountains is by car or taxi. However, excursions to the Krubera Cave are not available. It is not a tourist place. Ordinary people will not be able to climb inside on their own. A visit to the dungeon is possible only together with an expeditionary group (with the obligatory availability of climbing equipment and the necessary 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.

There are several fairly deep caves, and over 85% of those discovered to date are above sea level!

But not these ten: they are the deepest in the world, and some of them are so deep that they can only be explored and studied with the help of radar equipment, since not a single person could survive in them ...

10 Huautla Cave System, Mexico
depth - 1475 m

It is a cave system that is said to have endless passageways, waterfalls as high as a 60-story skyscraper, and real natural wonders such as a huge 90-meter cavity called "Aphrodite Hall" (Anthrodite Hall).

9. Czech Cave II (Čehi 2), Slovenia
depth - 1502 m

In Slovenia, caves are considered national property and protected by law, even if they happen to be located on privately owned land!

8. Sima De La Cornisa Cave, Spain
depth - 1507 m

This cave system is famous for its 28 Neanderthal skeletons found in one of the deepest parts of the cave. But how they got there without the equipment we have today is still one of the world's greatest mysteries.

7. Cave them. Vyacheslav Pantyukhin (Pantyukhinskaya cave), Abkhazia
depth - 1508 m


In the mine. Vyacheslav Pantyukhin, there are 513 caves, and every year more and more new ones are opened.

6. Cave of Torca del Cerro (Torca Del Cerro Del Cuevón), Spain
depth - 1589 m


The cave system of Torca del Cerro is a system consisting of two interconnected deep crevices. In addition, it is a deep chasm that has taken the lives of many cave explorers.

5. Jean Bernard Caves, France
depth - 1602 m

This cave is located in and has the highest entrance in the world. It's also pretty deep, but that goes without saying since it's on this list.

4. Mirolda Cave (Gouffre Mirolda), France
depth - 1626 m


Back in 2001, the Mirold Cave was considered the deepest in the world, but over time, deeper cave systems were discovered, which you will learn about below.

3. Lamprechtsofen Cave, Austria
depth - 1632 m

This is a cave that has been known and explored since 1701, but shortly after its discovery, it was walled up to prevent the intrusion of treasure seekers who tried to enter it, having heard the legends about the wealth hidden by a knight named Lamprecht, who returned from the Crusades.

2. Snow Cave, Abkhazia
depth - 1753 m


Snezhnaya Cave is the general name of the cave system, which consists of interconnected caves: "Snezhnaya", "Mezhennoye", "Illusion".

1. Krubera Cave, Abkhazia
depth - 2199 m


Also called the Crow Cave, it is the deepest cave in the world today, and every time someone descends into it using sonar, it gets deeper and deeper. The Krubera-Voronya Cave is the only one of the known caves, the depth of which exceeds 2 kilometers.

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 the majority stop thinking, frivolously trusting everything that they meet on the pages of the network. However, I am not going to talk about 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 tract Orto-Balagan
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 conducted in the cavity of the karst cave over the next half century found small forks at a depth.

Knowledge about the mysterious underground passages multiplied with each new descent: for several decades, each regular speleological expedition announced that they had reached a new depth. Research is still ongoing, they are carried out by: Ukrainian Speleological Association (UCA) under the leadership of Gennady Samokhin and the Russian Association of Cave Explorers, Cavex Club

For several years, this pack of photographs appears on various sites and is very rapidly distributed by social networks, often by people who have never been to this cave (it is clear that those who were there would not distribute it, but there are billions of times fewer of them :) ).
To be honest, I myself have not been there everywhere, but many of the photos do not at all correspond to the specifics of the cave. Therefore, 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 :) - about 500 links for each photo and everyone says that this is the deepest cave and invite them on an excursion and all sorts of oddities. After all, it's easier than ever to touch the secrets of the Universe without getting up from the couch. (The funniest text that appeared with these photographs was a suggestion 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 proceed to the destruction of photomyths about the cave of Krubera-Voronya.

The first photos I identified are the work of National Geographic photographer Stephen L. Alvarez. In fact, Stephen Alvarez was in Krubera Voronya and participated in the USA Call of the Abyss expedition as a National Geographic photographer. Apparently, the little man who first began to distribute the false photo knew about Alvarez's trip to Krubera-Voronya and "got" photos from him, not realizing that he was also in many other caves :) located far beyond the borders of Abkhazia.

Ellison's Cave, Northwest Georgia, USA (Ellison's Cave, Northwest Georgia, USA), photo by Stephen L. Alvarez.
Ellison's Cave is the 12th among the deepest caves in the US and has the deepest vertical free-fall well (without ledges) in the continental United States, called the Fantastic Pit, 178.6 m deep - it is also shown in the photo.
The depth of Ellison's Cave is 324m, the length is 19.31km. The cave and its surrounding area are supervised by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and are open to the public all year round. Due to the technically complex and dangerous nature of the cave, only the most experienced and capable speleologists are engaged in its exploration. General information about the cave is in Wikipedia.

Short video presentation by Stephen Alvarez:

Kabal Cave, Actun Kabal is one of the four caves of the Chiquibul Cave System, which are located along the Chiquibul River, Cayo, Belize, Central America. In addition to the village of Kabal, the Chikvibul Cave System includes the village of Actun Tun Kul (Tunkul) and the village of Cebada (Cebada Cave), located on the territory of Belize, as well as Xibalda, which is located on the territory of Guatemala.
Cabal is the upper part of the Chikvibul Cave system, currently 12 km long and 95 m in amplitude. The cave houses one of the world's largest halls, the Chiquibul Chamber, measuring 250m by 150m.
Another of the largest halls of the Cave system - the Belize Chamber with dimensions of 300x150m and a height of 65m is located in Aktun Tunkul village. The cave is also of archaeological value - Mayan pottery was found in it, which had lain in the dark for about 2000 years.

Mystery Falls Cave located in the area of ​​Hamilton, Tennessee, USA (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.

Cave Conley Hole (Conley Hole (the author of the photo has it recorded as Conoly Hole) located near the town of Viola (Viola, Tennessee, USA). Conley Hole is a bottle type well with a depth of 50m. The diameter of the entrance well is about 6m. The base of the bottle is about 240m in diameter. In 1973, the cave was labeled by NNL (National Natural Landmarks) as one of the finest examples of a bottle-type 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 (also called the Grand Canyon of the South) near the Alabama border. The depth of the cave is 52m, the length is 637m. In the photo there is an entrance 30m well.
(author's note. In Krubera-Voronya in a T-shirt, you won’t even dare to go down into the entrance well :))

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

Visiting the cave is limited by local authorities from 12:00 to 16:00, so as not to disturb the peace of the birds inhabiting the cave (at this time, they fly in a flock to hunt).

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

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

Some of these photos can be found on the website of the author - Stephen Alvarez. All other pictures with their names and descriptions are on a special National Geographic website - right on the main page, enter the name of the cave of interest (in English) or the name Alvarez into the search engine and enjoy the work of this photographer (these pictures can even be bought right there on the site.

I will continue the destruction of photomyths. Another American cave, but by another author

Piercy's Cave, West Virginia, USA (West Virginia, USA)

Piercy's Cave, West Virginia, USA (West Virginia, USA). Horizontal cave with a length of 1867m and an amplitude of 23m. Photo by Dave Bunnel is a photographer and former NSS News Editor.

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

I did not find any detailed information on this cave, except for its characteristics, which are on the well-known site caverbob, which presents almost all the statistics on world and American caves.

All photos are 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, along with five other caves, make up a cave system (whose name I did not find). The depth of the system is 1020m, the length is 35.5km.
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 the Great Chinese Mine (China's big shaft).
The descent into this well took the researchers two hours. The second picture shows the underground river at the bottom of Miao Keng.

Photographer Robert Sean website. Many of his photos are on Instagram.

And the place of this shooting should be familiar to many lovers of Karabi (Crimea)

The author of the photo is Che3000, a user of the LiveJournal, where he posted a report on the trip to Karabi. Moreover, the report contains the phrase: "Do not confuse 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 met a few more photos from this report. The photos are very beautiful and high quality. The only pity is that it is important for people to climb on some beautiful leak for the sake of a couple of photographs that look very beautiful even without little men. And in the report there is a photo of the brand of the cave, but in order 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, the founder of Russian and Soviet karst studies.

All the photographs are impressively beautiful, just like the phrase "The deepest cave in the world" itself is impressive. But this does not mean that all beautiful photos of caves should be called the deepest cave in the world of Krubera-Voronya. After all, they are all unique in their own way - each has its own Name, its own history, its own characteristics. We do not call all Ukrainians, for example, actresses Angelina Jolie, or all cars that drive around their hometown - Ferrari.
Or all speleologists - YuKasy :). I believe that we, cavers, should convey this to those who do not know this. Of course, the UCA will not print brochures with these photos and offer its members of the Association to distribute them on the streets, as all sorts of aunts-gods do :). I wrote this article so that in the event that someone once again 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 can refer to it (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 these are real photos of the Krubera-Voronya cave, taken during last year's expeditions of the USA "Call of the Abyss"

Our planet is fraught with many mysterious and interesting places. Some of them have been fully mastered by mankind, and some, even after much research, still need additional study. The deepest cave in the world, Krubera-Voronya, located in Abkhazia, is also considered a mystery. For many years now, scientists all over the planet have been trying to unravel its age-old secrets.

The history of the name of the cave

The Krubera-Voronya Cave in Abkhazia is located in the Arabica Mountains. It consists of numerous wells, interconnected by galleries and stiles. The waters of the cave give life to the shortest river on the planet, Reprua, which flows into the Black Sea. Its length is no more than eighteen meters.

The cave reaches a depth of about 2200 meters. It was first studied by speleologists from Georgia (1960) and was originally named after the scientist Alexander Kruber. At that time, its depth was mastered only up to ninety-five meters.

The second study was destined to take place only in 1968, thanks to speleologists from the Krasnoyarsk Territory. When studying it to a depth of two hundred and ten meters, they used the name Siberian.

The next study of the cave was carried out in the eighties by Kiev speleologists. They gave her another name - Crow. In this case, scientists worked at a depth of up to three hundred and forty meters.

Cavers records

Due to the hostilities that engulfed the territory of Abkhazia, the Krubera-Voronya cave became completely inaccessible for speleologists. On the map of world exploration, it remained a mysterious place for some time.

However, already at the end of the 90s, cavers from Kyiv resumed the study, and the group subsequently reached a depth of one thousand four hundred and ten meters. And January 2001 was marked by a new mark - 1710 m, which became the world record result of scientists who are members of the Ukrainian Speleological Association.

Further breakthrough was marked by the efforts of the Cavex team, which in August 2003, despite incredible difficulties, reached a depth of 1680 meters. A year later, the following records appeared. Members of the same expedition reached the mark of 1775 meters, and members of the Ukrainian Speleological Association - up to 1840 meters. And already in October 2004, the history of world speleology was replenished for the first time by overcoming a two-kilometer barrier.

Until recently, the depth record of 2191 meters was held by the researcher G. Samokhin (August 2007). It should also be noted the high results achieved by women. So, the Lithuanian S. Pankene reached a depth of two thousand meters one hundred and forty centimeters.

About the entrance to the cave

The entrance, which has a cave Krubera-Voronya, is located at an altitude of 2250 meters above sea level. But there are two more accesses. These are the entrances to such caves as Genrihova Abyss and Kuibyshev. They are further up the mountainside. A hundred meters lower than the entrance to Voronya, there is access through the Berchil cave. The total length of such a bundle is more than two thousand meters deep.

The presence of many large caves in the Arabica mountain system, scientists have long assumed. Indeed, even at the beginning of the twentieth century, the leading karstologist Martel from France, conducting research in these places, concluded that there were huge underground voids in the mountains.

However, access to the deepest cave was discovered only in the 60s. But because of the rather narrow passage, the Georgian speleologists (even after discovering the well) had to retreat from the desired work. And only in 2002, members of the Russian-Ukrainian team were recognized as the discoverers of the deepest cave in the world.

Overcoming record results

Relatively recently, in 2012, scientists from the Hebrew University conducted another study of the world-famous cave. The team members have been preparing for this event for several years. The primary goal of the group of scientists was to study the cave itself, its depth and underground sources, as well as understanding the development of the climate that once existed on Earth. However, besides this, one of the amazing results of their work was the discovery of unexplored species of fish living in the purest water at a depth of more than two thousand meters.

The Krubera-Voronya Cave attracts many scientists. The study of its depths has repeatedly become a kind of competition in achieving new results. So, this time the Ukrainian researcher, who is part of the expedition, reached a record depth - 2 meters 196 centimeters below the Earth's surface. To get to the extreme parts of the cave, cavers had to use ropes and dive into very cold water. Unfortunately, one of the expedition members tragically died during the experiments.

In addition, another record result was broken. The Israeli scientist L. Feigin was in the cave for twenty-four days, which was the longest period spent underground.

Shooting a cave

Of course, not only for speleologists, but also for many photographers, the Krubera-Voronya cave is of great interest. Photos taken at great depths are something unusual and incredible. The famous photographer S. Alvarez made a considerable number of wonderful pictures dedicated to the work of speleologists. Prior to that, he worked on religious, cultural and research photographs, collaborating with publications such as Time, National Geographic Magazine, Travel Holiday, Adventure, Delta Sky. But for some time now, shooting caves has become his serious hobby.

A new kind of beetle

The Krubera-Voronya Cave opens up new opportunities not only for speleologists. Excursion within the framework organized by Spanish biologists did not make us wait long for new results. They discovered a yet unexplored species of ground beetles. They are among the deepest-living underground insects, feeding on decaying organic matter and fungi. Representatives of the Duvalius species also have eyes, which are used in pitch darkness closer to the surface of the earth. Biologists are sure that many more different species of beetles can be found in this one, living in a limited area, such as a cave or an island.

cave explorers

Cavex cavers have put a lot of effort into uncovering new secrets of the deepest cave in the world. After all, it was the daredevils from this team who for the first time managed to go down the entire length of the underground well to a depth of 1710 meters.

At the same time, the Krubera-Voronya cave was subjected to a phased study. Cavex quite often stumbled upon dead-end galleries or insignificant windows in the walls of wells, but all of them inevitably led to the beginning of a new path. Already in 2001, scientists reached new depths, which became a world record result. The open expanse of the cave ended with a sparkling hall with a lake, called the "Hall of Soviet speleologists". Thus, it was emphasized that this achievement was made possible thanks to the work of several generations of scientists.

Reasons for long studies

In 2001, the Krubera-Voronya cave officially received the title of the deepest on the planet, beating the previous champions - the Austrian Lamprechtsofen cave and the French Pierre and Jean Bernard.

To understand its real depth, it is necessary to imagine at least seven Eiffel Towers standing on top of each other. Why, then, did many speleologists not be able to establish the true dimensions of the cave for so long? The main reason has always been the lack of technical means. In addition, the formidable and too narrow passages posed a mortal challenge to many researchers.

Nevertheless, the mysterious cave still attracts scientists with its incredible underground waterfalls, tunnels and wells, forcing them to make more and more new discoveries.

The largest in the Abkhazian cave Krubera-Voronya, the “Big Cascade” well descends to 152 m; the cave itself, with a known depth of 2196 m, is by far the deepest in the world. The passage record belongs to Ukrainian speleologists.
The Age of Discovery did not end with the mapping of the last piece of the earth's surface. The current pioneers rush to their goals not far away, but deep into, revealing the secrets of the underworld of the Earth.
Jules Verne's fantastic epic "Journey to the Center of the Earth" anticipated the real penetration of daredevil speleologists into the mysterious inner world of the planet, where underground abysses, grandiose halls, tunnels, wells and galleries, rivers and lakes are discovered. The chronicle of the conquest of the "underground pole" can be traced back to 1723, when the engineer Nagel, on the orders of the Austrian emperor, reached the bottom in the Macocha abyss in Moravia (-138 m). The record was then set by Italy with Patriciano Cave (-226 m in 1839) and Trebiciano Cave (-320 m in 1841). Then the caves in Switzerland, Austria, again in Italy were considered the deepest. In 1944, the minus 500 m mark was conquered in the Dent-de-Croll cave system, France, and almost until the very end of the 20th century. the French dominated the conquest of the cave depths.
The global speleology boom began in the middle of the last century, when a dramatic struggle ensued for the status of not the deepest, but the longest cave in the world. The exploration of the giant caves required special efforts and preparation (the top three were the American cave with a known length of 38 km at that time, which over time subsequent expeditions managed to increase to 563 km), the Ukrainian cave Optimisticheskaya (the known length of 230.5 km) and the Swiss Hölloch (156 km). "Under the earth's surface in absolute darkness is such a huge world that you can talk about a new continent," - said the famous Swiss speleologist on the pages of National Geographic magazine (Alfred Begley in 1966). The “underground continent” metaphor was immediately supported. Speleological expeditions continue, the study of caves is carried out on a large scale and intensively, the list of record holders is constantly updated as the boundaries expand in breadth and depth. It is not possible to go through the entire cave through, to the very bottom of the longest passage, and not on the first try. all the pioneers of the underworld manage to return alive. This is a very dangerous path, full of extreme situations, complicated by bottlenecks, blockages and siphons (sections of the tunnel completely flooded with water) of unpredictable length and configuration.
The deeper, the more extreme, and each new breakthrough into the depths became a sensation of its time. A depth of 1000 m was overcome in 1956 in the Berger abyss in the French Alps. The 1500 m line was passed in 1983 in the Jean-Bernard abyss, also in France (-1535 m). In 1998, the Lamprechtsofen abyss in the Austrian Alps with a depth of 1630 m (a record of the Polish team) was named the "underground pole" of the Earth. And finally, in 2001, the Ukrainian expedition explored the new deepest cave in the world - Krubera-Voronya on the Arabica massif in the Western Caucasus - to a depth of 1710 m. The previous record was surpassed immediately by 80 m. This became a real sensation not only in the speleological world, news bypassed all the mainstream media. At the 13th International Speleological Congress in Brazil in August 2001, the Ukrainian Speleological Association was awarded the honorary prize "For the most outstanding speleological discovery."
The entrance to the Krubera-Voronya cave is located in the Orto-Balagan valley from the northern side of the Berchil Range, at an altitude of 2240 m above sea level. m. It is a series of wells connected by stiles and galleries. During the exploration of the cave, the expedition equipped several camps inside: at a depth of 1200 m (a platform for two tents) and 1400 m. Further descent is only in a wetsuit. Siphon at a depth of -2145.5 m continues to the very bottom (final 50.5 m under water).
The Krubera-Voronya karst cave in Abkhazia, explored back in the 1960s by Georgian speleologists, is the current record holder in vertical races. Currently, it is considered the deepest in the world.
Back in 1977, the people of Kiev discovered and explored the deepest cave in the USSR at that time - the Kievskaya abyss on the Kyrktau plateau in Central Asia, which became the first Soviet "thousandth" (deeper than 1000 m) and the fourth in the world at that time. And promising Arabica in Abkhazia, in order to open here a new deepest cave in the world, began to be examined back in the 1980s. The choice of location was not accidental: the geology and hydrogeology of the massif made it possible to rely on ultra-deep caves. The Krubera-Voronya cave was then explored to a depth of 340 m. With each new expedition, the depth mark fell lower and lower.
For the 1980s Ukrainian and Russian speleologists have explored hundreds of caves in Arabica, including four caves deeper than a kilometer. But the team knew that this was not the limit: in 1984-1985. a unique experiment on staining groundwater proved the existence of the world's deepest hydraulic system in the bowels of Arabica. The colored water of the source on the top of the mountain, going into the crevices of the cave system, 2300 meters below, came out at the foot of the massif through 8 sources. It remained only to explore and go through this cave labyrinth following the underground waters.
But after the collapse of the USSR, the Georgian-Abkhaz ethno-political conflict escalated, which escalated into hostilities in 1992-1993 and 1998. The war interrupted the exploration of the caves. Only in 1999, an expedition led by Yuri Kasyan returned to the Ortobalegan glacial valley (the most promising section of Arabica in terms of caves). And immediately a continuation of the passages in the previously explored Krubera-Voronya cave was discovered. It was a breakthrough to a depth of 750 m, in August of the next 2000 - up to 1200 m, in September of the same year - up to 1480 m, and everyone felt that the world record was close. And they organized the third expedition in a year, without waiting for the next summer. In winter, at the turn of 2000 and 2001, the cave was explored to the dam at a record depth of 1710 m!
The world record in 2001 was not the ultimate dream: the team of speleologists set a new goal - to overcome the 2000-meter depth mark in a natural cave. In 2003, Oleg Klimchuk and Denis Provalov (an expedition of the Kiev Caving Club and the Cavex team) managed to overcome a flooded area in a small side branch of the Krubera-Voronya cave at a depth of 1440 m and discovered a new branch of the cave system. At that time, it was explored to a depth of 1680 m. In 2007, Ukrainian Gennady Samokhin descended in the Krubera-Voronya cave to a depth of 2191 m, setting a new world record. And relatively recently, in August 2012, an international team of speleologists managed to reach its bottom. The world record for the depth of being in a cave - 2196 m - was set by that Gennady Samokhin. The bottom of the cave lay 5 m below the record mark of 2007.
The possibility of opening a new, even deeper cave theoretically exists. Experts are confident that tens of thousands of caves explored to date are only a tiny fraction of the predicted number, and new depth records are ahead, which cavers will be proud of no less than the first climbers who conquered Everest.

general information

The deepest natural cave in the world(at the beginning of 2014).

Type: sub-vertical karst, the lower part is composed of black limestones.

Location: Arabica mountain range of the Gagra Range of the Western Caucasus.

Administrative affiliation: Republic of Abkhazia (partially recognized state in accordance with the UN resolution - is part of Georgia).

Nearest city: Gagra.

Opening year: 1960 (a group led by L.I. Maruashvili descended 95 m).

The status of the deepest in the world: 2001 (1710 m). The 2000-meter milestone was passed in October 2004.

Year of complete passage: 2012

Numbers

Known Depth: 2196 m.

Total stroke length: 16,058 m.
The deepest well: 152 m.
Cave entrance height: 2240 m above sea level.

Climate

The cave has its own microclimate.

Average annual temperature of air and water at depth: around +5°C.

Relative Humidity: about 100%.
The city of Gagra (Gagra) has a humid subtropical climate.

Average annual temperature: + 17°С.
January average temperature: +12°С.

July average temperature: +26°С.
Average annual precipitation: 1700 mm.

Curious facts

■ The cave is named after Alexander Alexandrovich Kruber (1871-1941) - "the father of Russian karst studies", an outstanding physical geographer. Kruber studied the karst structures of the East European Plain, the Crimea and the Caucasus. The Krubera ridge on the island of Iturup and a karst cave on the Karabi-yayla plateau in the Crimea are also named after him.
■ After the Ukrainians set a world record in 2001 (1710 m, Krubera-Voronya cave), the French tried to regain the palm and announced a depth of 1730 m in the Mirolda cave in the Alps. But then, six months later, they themselves discovered their error in the measurements and abandoned their claims to leadership. National Geographic magazine called that intrigue "The Race to the Center of the Earth."
■ From the Krubera-Voronya cave at the foot of the Arabika mountain range, the Reprua River flows out, officially considered the shortest in the world (and the coldest of those flowing into the Black Sea). It is a powerful outlet of an underground karst river, which flows into after 18 m. In fact, it originates on a glacier on the Arabica high plateau at an altitude of 2500 m, 12-15 km from the sea coast.
■ According to forecasts, the maximum depth of a natural mine on our planet can reach up to 2200-2500 m.
■ The limit of passability in speleology is constantly moving away: the arsenal of used equipment and technical means is expanding, and the psychological perception by speleologists of overcoming obstacles is also changing. The team can work on achieving a record depth over several expeditions, equipping intermediate camps and throwing equipment, supplies of provisions and oxygen there.