The mysterious disappearance of an experienced traveler in Cave M. The deepest caves on earth

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

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

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

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

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

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

Krubera-Voronya cave in Abkhazia.

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

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

in the world mysterious disappearances There are especially strange, inexplicable, frightening and even paranormal cases when a person literally disappears into thin air. This is exactly what happened to a traveler and adventurer named Kenny Veach, who went into the desert in search of a mysterious cave and never returned.

In 2014, avid and experienced traveler Kenny Veach reported in an Internet post that he had discovered a mysterious cave in the Nevada desert in one of the mountain ranges in national reserve north of Las Vegas, near military base Air Force Nellis.

Veach, 47, wrote that the entrance to the cave had a rather strange shape, similar to the letter “M”, and that he felt the strangest sensations near it. He claimed that the closer he came to mysterious cave, the more intensely he experienced vibrations that literally shook his entire body. Soon they became so unbearable that he could not move further into the depths of the cave. He lay in the dark and at some point even began to fear for his life and hastily climbed out of this ominous place to the surface.

Later, having aroused enormous interest in the cave among Internet users, he announced that he was ready for the next expedition to “Cave M.” But the second attempt to enter the cave was also unsuccessful.

“There are a huge number of caves in this area. I've been to hundreds of them. "Cave M is the only cave I'm afraid of... I invite someone to join me."- Kenny Veach wrote then.

The only thing he reported about the progress of the second expedition was that a mysterious black ram was closely watching him from the top of the ridge.

But this did not stop Veach, who was known by many as an avid and hopeless adrenaline junkie, a fearless adventurer who was also an experienced traveler. Veach described himself as a daredevil and a cowboy, and often posted selfies online in the most dangerous and wild places.

Despite the warnings, he immediately decided to make a third attempt to conquer the obstinate cave, this time armed with a pistol.

“I’ll have a 9mm this time, just in case. You have to walk about 10 km through the desert. This is a very dangerous area."- he wrote in his last post.

Some users strongly warned and even begged him to abandon his idea, calling it stupidity. They told him that the cave would bring him nothing but trouble, he might die of hunger and not return

But this did not stop the fearless Vich, who was obsessed with the mysterious cave. On November 10, 2014, Kenny Veach found himself back in the harsh wilderness on a two-day hike from which he never returned.

After all deadlines for his return had passed, Veach's concerned family and friends began an intensive search on the ground and by air. During the search operation, only his cell phone, which was found near an old vertical mine. It was believed that Veach may have fallen into the mine, but when rescuers explored the mine, no sign of the missing hiker was found.

After days of searching, no one had the slightest idea where Kenny had disappeared, or whether he was even here. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air. He hasn't been seen since.

Dangerous terrain, remoteness from civilization, wild animals and dehydration are... real threats that tourists encounter. All this was well known to the experienced traveler, since he had gone through quite difficult hikes in the most risky places. He walked on the edge of a knife all the time, as if he felt a constant need to take on a challenge.

“My travels take a cruel toll on my body. After one of my long hikes, my toenails turned black and fell off... I need about three days to fully recover,”- Veach wrote in his comment on YouTube.

Perhaps his luck had run out, or perhaps he had stumbled upon someone's foul play and witnessed something he should not have seen. He could have been kidnapped by someone for unknown reasons.

The mysterious "Cave M" is located next to the Nellis military base, which has long been rumored to consist of a vast network of tunnels that are home to secret research projects involving aliens and even a portal to another dimension.

So what happened to Kenny Veach? Was he killed in the desert as a reckless witness? Voluntarily left the earth? Or is it all due to military experiments, aliens or portals? All these questions surrounding the strange disappearance remain unanswered, and “Cave M” is still waiting for its next victim.

Tourism is one of the main sectors of the economy of Abkhazia. All travelers come here for two things, beach and mountain tourism. Most of the attractions consist of objects natural origin, which are mainly located in mountainous areas. Among them are gardens, lakes, waterfalls and, of course, caves, which are in demand and famous in Abkhazia, as well as beyond its borders. Special attention deserves the Krubera-Voronya cave, which will be discussed further.

The Krubera-Voronya Cave is a natural site known all over the world. The reason for this is physical dimensions, this cave is the deepest currently explored in the whole world. This natural miracle reaches a depth of up to 2199 meters! Krubera-Voronya cave is located in the Arabica mountain range, Gagra ridge, in the Western Caucasus.

The Arabica massif is one of the largest and highest in the Western Caucasus. The depths of this part of the Gagra ridge are dotted with many caves, including Krubera-Voronya. Its main entrance rises at an altitude of about 2250 meters above sea level, surrounded by the Orto-Balagan tract. According to its type, the Krubera-Voronya cave is a karst cave, which was formed by the long-term activity of water dissolving the rock, which in turn led to the appearance of voids.

The Krubera-Voronya cave is subvertical and consists of a series of wells connected by galleries and climbers. Another entrance to it was opened in August 2014 and it is located three meters higher than the main one. Still, there are five entrances to the cave. Having descended to a depth of 200 meters, the “mine” branches into two main ones: the Main branch, depth up to 2196 meters, and the Nekuibyshevskaya branch, depth 1697 meters. After a level of 1300 meters, the Krubera-Voronya cave branches into many others.

The Krubera-Voronya cave contains quite deep plumbs, among which there are heights of 110, 115 and even 152 meters. Just imagine that such a plumb line can accommodate a 50-story skyscraper. More than 8 tunnels (siphons) are known in the bottom part of the cave. The bottom part of the attraction has another interesting feature, starting from a depth of 1600 meters, the limestone in which the cave is located becomes black.

Krubera-Voronya Cave was discovered in 1960. For the first time it was explored to a depth of 95 meters by an expedition led by the largest researcher of Georgian geography, honored scientist, Doctor of Geographical Sciences and Professor Levan Iosifovich Maruashvili. The cave received its name in honor of the outstanding Soviet geographer, founder of Russian karst studies, Alexander Alexandrovich Kruber.

After some time, the Krubera-Voronya cave was forgotten, but in 1968 it was explored again, but to a depth of 210 meters, by speleologists from Krasnoyarsk. The new expedition gave a new name natural object, Siberian cave. Oddly enough, the cave again lost interest and was forgotten until the 1980s, when Kyiv speleologists discovered it and re-explored it to a new depth of 340 meters. This time the Krubera-Voronya cave received its new, third name, Voronya.

Subsequent descents resumed only in August 1999; the reason for such a long break was the Georgian-Abkhaz war, which cut off the Krubera-Voronya cave from free visits by speleologists. At the end of the 1990s, Kyiv speleologists reached a depth of 700 meters, which in September 2000 had already reached 1410 meters. In January 2001, members of the Ukrainian Speleological Association, together with Moscow speleologists, set a world record, reaching 1710 meters.

In subsequent years, the Krubera-Voronya cave became a place of rivalry between the two teams. In August 2003, the Russian Cavex team passed the fourth siphon and stopped at a depth of 1680 meters, where it then had free continuation. A year later, the same team set a new world record at 1775 meters.

A month later, the Ukrainian Speleological Association explored another branch of the Krubera-Voronya cave, and again set a world record of 1840 meters, and on October 19, for the first time in the history of speleology, the 2-kilometer limit was overcome - 2080 meters. All subsequent expeditions of the rival teams consisted of diving bottom tunnels (siphons), each time increasing the depth.

On August 10, 2013, the Krubera-Voronya cave became known for a new record of 2197 meters, set by a teacher and speleologist from Simferopol, Gennady Viktorovich Samokhin. And in 2014, a new entrance was passed, located 2 meters lower from the main one, which increased the depth of the system to 2199 meters, with a total length of 16058 meters. So every year more and more expeditions come, exploring the subsoil, discovering something new, and who knows, maybe the numbers 2199 and 16058 meters are not the limit.

March 28th, 2013

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 waters of the Krubera-Voronya cave feed the most short river in the world - Reprua.

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 the speleologists were able to do was give new cave name - Krubera Cave in honor of the founder of Russian and Soviet karstology (the science of the influence of water on rocks) Alexandra Krubera.

Then it started long history, reminiscent of an auction that occurs with any cave after opening: 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 a tracing experiment on Arabica groundwater and once again confirmed the presence there of the world’s deepest karst hydraulic system. 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, “swung,” as speleologists say, into the window of the cave and discovered the entrance to a new tunnel. “In 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- this is 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 underground river, flowing through the cave, unloads 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 a prospect of greater depth in it, it is completely separate from the Krubera cave...

sources

We have already walked more than 2,000 meters down.
Speleologists first learned about the existence of the Krubera-Voronya cave in the Arabica mountain range in Abkhazia in 1960. Then they managed to descend only 95 meters. The cave was classified as shallow and forgotten about for 8 years. During the second attempt to explore the cave, speleologists reached a depth of 210 meters, the third expedition reached 340 meters.
From that moment on, each subsequent expedition set itself the main goal of descending as low as possible. However, with each new descent, only the number of discovered passages and branches grew, while the exact depth of the cave continued to remain a mystery. In 2001, another team of cave explorers reached a record depth of 1710 meters, which made it possible to officially classify the Krubera-Voronya cave as the deepest cave on the planet.

The Arabica mountain range, in which the cave is located, is located 15 kilometers northeast of the Gagra resort.

Krubera-Voronya is a karst cave of a subvertical type. It consists of a series of wells connected by passages and galleries.

The first entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of about 2250 m above sea level in the Orto-Balagan tract. The second entrance to the cave, which was discovered in August 2014, is located 3 meters above the first.

At a depth of 200 meters, the cave branches into two main branches: Nekuibyshevskaya (depth 1697 m in 2010) and the Main branch (current depth up to 2196 m). 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 m). The cave is located in a limestone mass, while the bottom part from a depth of 1600 meters is laid in black limestone.

Until June 2001, the deepest cave in the world was considered the Lamprechtsofen cave with a depth of 1632 meters, located in the Northern Limestone Alps, until an expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association with the participation of Moscow speleologists set a world record, reaching a mark of 1710 meters in the Krubera-Voronya cave.

The mark of 1710 meters for the cave turned out to be not the limit. During subsequent expeditions, speleologists announced reaching a new depth.

In 2004, the Krubera-Voronya cave became the only known cave in the world with a depth of more than 2000 meters. On October 19, for the first time in the history of speleology, we crossed the 2-kilometer mark - 2080 m.

You can get into the cave only as part of one of the speleological expeditions, and even then only if you have the appropriate climbing skills and special speleological equipment.

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.