Ice cave. Incredible ice caves remain frozen even in summer! The cave is cold
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The Cold Cave or Suuk-Koba is located on the Chatyrdag plateau. The entrance to the Kholodnaya cave is located on the northeastern slope of a large funnel, and is separated by a low isthmus from an even larger funnel where the Thousand-Headed Cave (Bin-bash-hoba) is located.
The entrance to Suuk-Kobu looks like an arch, slightly more than 2 m high. The arch is formed by layers of limestone, and the lock of the arch is a large block of limestone, sandwiched between two other blocks. Behind the arch there is an entrance to a cave 5.2 m wide. Immediately from the arch there is a downward passage with a slope of up to 35°, which after 12.8 m widens and rises, turning into a vast hall with a maximum width of 32 m and a height of up to 20 m. There is a small niche in the southeast corner of the hall. The floor of the cave is strewn with numerous small blocks, and a large block of limestone, which fell from the ceiling, where a deep niche remained, is located on the left side in the depths of the cave. At a large stone, the cave narrows and turns.
Further on, the cave narrows more and more and its ceiling lowers. Even further, the corridor widens again, although the ceiling drops noticeably, sometimes forcing a passing person to bend down, and finally the corridor turns into a hall rich in sinter formations. Water here oozes from the walls, ceiling and spreads across the uneven floor. In the western wall there is a gap - a watercourse with sinter formations in the form of stalactites, stalagmites and columns, and at the end of the hall there are numerous baths with cold, clean water. Water from some baths flows in cascades into the baths below. The water temperature in them is approximately 5° all year round. Then the cave turns east, descending steeply.
Behind a low and narrow arch formed by stalactites and stalagmites, going down a little, we find ourselves in a vast hall with developed sinter formations in its eastern part, which separate this hall from the next one. The maximum height of the hall is about 4 m, and its floor gradually rises to a height of up to 4 m. Then the cave turns, reaching a height of up to 5 m, and here in the middle of the hall a huge column of fused stalactites and stalagmites is found. This hall lies approximately 43 m below the mouth of the cave.
From the first hall there are passages that rise steeply from the main passage to a height of 1.5 - 2 m. Here one hall is very high, up to 12 m, it is separated from the passage by a limestone whole, covered with tuff deposits in the form of drapery. Another hall, up to 5 m high, is separated from the previous one by a threshold and well-developed stalagmites. And to get to the next low (up to 2 m) hall, you need to climb a steep rise to a height of 9.5 m. There are stalagmites in the hall, and its ceiling is decorated with beautiful stalactites, which are most richly developed near the south-eastern wall. Finally, the cave leads into a low, but significant in area, hall. It has a particularly rich decoration with completely fresh sinter formations. In some places there are fresh, but very small stalactites that look like a cylindrical crust, thin and transparent, with a drop of water at the end. The northeastern (rear) wall consists of many small stalactites, columns and drapery, but the vast majority of the decorations, as in the rest of the cave, have been knocked off. The ceiling is very low - about 1 m; in the lower part of the hall there is a small bath with water. The highest point of the floor of this hall is 18 m above the point of the main passage.
Thus, the Suuk-koba Cave is a combination of horizontal and inclined passages, together forming a full turn of the screw with a stroke height of 43 m, and the entire length of the main passage in plan is 128 m. Due to the accessibility of most of the cave to tourists, it has radically changed its natural appearance They show fresh fractures in the stalactites, which they continue to carve “as souvenirs”...
GPS g. 44.786886,34.287868 (format used in online maps)
GPS g.m. 44°47.213", 34°17.272" (format used in navigators and geocaching)
GPS g.m.s. 44°47"12.79", 34°17"16.32"
In addition to equipped paid caves, there are plenty of “free” ones, but they are no worse than the “official” ones. The latter, of course, are impressive and amazing, but the value of the latter is best determined by the remark of one of the visitors:
- All my life I thought that real caves should be like in the book about Tom Sawyer. Remember, there was a huge, multi-tiered and multi-passage cave in which you could get lost and come out on the other side of the mountain? And where they lead you by the hand and give excursions, of course, it’s great... But that’s not it. There is no atmosphere.
Suuk-Koba, or Cold Cave, is located a kilometer from. Here you can already feel like you’re in a real dungeon - alone with friends, with a vague flashlight beam you’re sliding down a slippery clay slope somewhere down - no one has cut the steps for you. Nothing is highlighted, and you feel like a real discoverer.
Unlike equipped caves, here you can touch and lick everything (if you are not afraid that it has already been licked before you), which is why, however, the cave looks sadder - everything has been touched here, to the point that the calcite walls have begun to collapse. The air leaves a black coating on the walls near the entrance - this is natural, but not very beautiful. Moreover, even the stalactites here were cut out with an axe. Apparently for souvenirs.
In the nineties, Bulgaria filmed here documentary, that's why they were drawn beautiful pictures. The main difference from natural rock painting is that ancient people did not use multi-colored paints and did not bother to take into account proportions.
The exit, illuminated during the day, is as always beautiful, this is present in all caves with a natural entrance.
The entrance is located in a cozy hollow, hidden by greenery from prying eyes, so it is best to find the cave using a navigator, even though there is a well-trodden path leading to it. Suuk-Koba will not be forgotten, she is alive. There were many guests in it, and she continues to live her thoughtful and eternal life, like the earth.
Winter's Tale
Red trail
Red trail
Winter sun
Red trail
Tour at the top of the Red Trail
The weather in Crimea is an amazing thing, it is so unpredictable and changeable... Just yesterday, on our hike to the Ai-Petri plateau, we walked through mud and fog, fleeing the rain on the southern slopes. And today, having gone to Chatyrdag, we found ourselves again in winter. About 10 cm of snow fell that night! Although in Simferopol everything is gray and not a hint of snow. Arriving in Sosnovka in the morning, we were pleasantly surprised by such a surprise; we didn’t even think to take shoe covers with us. And when along the way we saw snow on oncoming cars, we were surprised where they could have been sprinkled with snow :) It’s quite cool in the valley, the slopes are snow-white, but thawed patches are already visible. The soil was warmed up, so the snow immediately partially melted. But the higher we climb along the road, the more we find ourselves in the kingdom of winter. Above, clouds creep in every now and then, appearing and then disappearing again. A strong wind does not allow them to close the mountain, driving them back, and then again giving them the opportunity to crawl across the upper plateau. We climb the sunny Red Trail and admire the beauty winter species. Today's Monday was chosen for a walk to Chatyrdag for a reason. Today is the day of the winter solstice, and it is on this day that the sun hits the Cold Cave during the day as deep and far as possible, illuminating it from the inside with its light. And if you're lucky, you can see a ray of sunlight on the far walls of the cave. At other times of the year, very little light gets here.
Lower plateau of Chatyrdag
In the snow of Chatyrdag
Cornices of the lower plateau
Along the lower plateau
Shadows
Transmissions
Now about the cave itself. What is so remarkable about it? This is one of the many popular publicly accessible caves on the lower Chatyrdag plateau. Firstly, there is a condensation catchment inside the cave, which makes the cave a source fresh water, but there is not much water. Secondly, a science fiction film was filmed here in the nineties, for which a symbolic drawing was painted on the wall, often passed off as ancient rock art. Thirdly, the sheer volume of the cave is striking; it is far from small, the height of the ceilings of its main hall reaches 25 meters! All this attracts many tourists here, which, of course, had an unfavorable effect on the cave - stalactites and deposits are broken off, there is often garbage at the entrance... But these things are inevitable, unfortunately. Finding the cave is not difficult; there are many descriptions and coordinates of the cave on the Internet, so we won’t dwell on detailed description its location. It is located about a 20-30 minute walk from the Onyx-Tour camp site, almost next to the road, past the Bottomless Cave. We reached Suuk-Koba around 12:30, climbed inside to warm up and sat down to wait for a miracle. Unfortunately, a cloud on the upper plateau again covered the horizons and blocked the sun from us. Therefore, the likelihood that it would peek out again from the mass of clouds was small... During the hour and a half of our wait, the sun appeared briefly only once - and it was clear that it was sinking lower and lower, but did not have time to illuminate the far wall. We had to be content with only the general illumination of the cave, but this was enough to have an idea of the volume of the cave and what it looks like in daylight! After admiring this spectacle, we set off on our way back. The sun was still not visible, and it was cold too North wind rose, blowing into the hoods. Therefore, we hastened to leave winter as quickly as possible, heading towards the Ishacha Path and Perevalnoye. Photos of winter and Suuk-Koba are attached, worth a thousand words!
The world of caves is amazing. It has its own rivers flowing, in some places spilling into miniature lakes, its own stone trees grow, and its own stone flowers bloom. A ray of sun will never revive them, lightning will never illuminate them for a moment - everything is shrouded in eternal darkness and deep silence. Everything that the world of caves is rich in was made by water. Water continuously destroys limestones, which under its influence easily dissolve and erode. Calcium carbonate dissolved in water settles on the surface of the stone. Drop by drop, a tubercle gradually appears, which over time will grow into a hanging icicle - a stalactite. Having fallen on the floor, a drop leaves a particle of the mineral on it. A stalagmite grows from the floor towards the stalactite. Later they will merge into one powerful column. A number of columns, continuing to grow, create bizarre partitions; entire forests of columns fill some caves. The originality and richness of forms created by nature defies description. The karst cavities of Chatyr-Dag can be divided into three groups:
Sports, access to which is difficult due to natural obstacles; passage requires special equipment and certain knowledge, skills and abilities;
Publicly accessible, these are not deep wells and horizontally inclined caves, visiting which do not require long-term sports training and special equipment(this group includes Suuk-Koba, Binbash-Koba and many others)
Suuk-Koba is a cave on the Nizhny Chatyr-Dag village. The name "Suuk-Koba" is translated as "Cold Cave". Probably due to the temperature of 6 degrees inside. The Kholodnaya cave is located not far from the unequipped Thousand-Headed Cave (Bin-Bash-Koby), as well as from the Marble and Mammoth caves.
Suuk-Koba begins with a huge hall, up to 25 meters high. A composition of stalactites grows here, popularly called an “organ”: many stone icicles intertwined into one structure, similar to organ pipes.
Further, the hall of Suuk-Koba narrows and branches in two directions. If you want to go right, you'll have to climb some makeshift steps. The steps in Suuk Kobe, like in any other cave, are quite slippery, so you need to be extremely careful. If you go to the left, walking through numerous baths will lead to a hall with a column.
An extraordinary drawing is drawn on the wall of the cave near the fork. Do not rush to rejoice at the fact that you have found prehistoric rock paintings: in those days no one painted in colors and in compliance with proportions. They say that in the 90s a film about cave dwellers was shot on Chatyr-Dag, and Suuk-Koba was not ignored. Now the drawing has become a local landmark.
Thousand-Headed Cave (Binbash-koba) - a cave on the Nizhny Chatyr-Dag yayla. The name "Binbash-Koba" is translated from Turkic as "Cave of a Thousand Heads". Hence its second name - Thousand-Headed. The length of the cave is 110 m. The cave is located not far from the Cold Cave (Suuk-Koby).
The name of the cave is not accidental. Since the middle of the 19th century, Binbash-Koba was actively visited local residents, since it has been known for many centuries. The first “researchers” found a lot of human skulls and bones in the cave, and literally within fifty years all the skulls were taken out of the cave and sold on the Angarsk Pass to the first Crimean tourists as “souvenirs from Chatyr-Dag.”
As usual, there are two options for explaining such a large number of human remains in the cave: according to legend and from the point of view of logic.
Legend has it that one day nomadic tribes attacked local villages. The residents hastily took refuge in a cave they had known for a long time, taking with them all their belongings and food. And so they would have survived the raid of the nomads, but there was no source of water in the cave. Therefore, every night is the most beautiful girl The tribe with jugs of water left the cave and went to the nearest source for water. This went on for many days, but here’s the problem: when the girl carried water, it splashed and irrigated the path, and after a while the path from the well to the cave was covered with beautiful flowers. The nomads discovered this and tracked down where the fugitives were hiding. And since they did not want to surrender, the invaders lit a huge fire at the entrance, and all the inhabitants hiding in the cave died.
There is a more logical explanation. The Thousand-Headed Cave has a very unusual shape: starting with a wide platform and a horizontal entrance-portal, it turns into a gorge, and then opens up into a huge hall with dozens of stalactites and stalagmites. Ideal place for the burial of the dead - majestic and quiet. It is believed that Bin-Bash Koba served as a ritual burial place for local tribes - this is confirmed by the fact that only adult skulls were found in the cave.
The Thousand-Headed Cave has another feature. She is a perfect example of what becomes of a cave after it is opened for “free access” to everyone. Unfortunately, only traces remained of the rich and beautiful sinter formations. Many giant columns of stalagmites have been toppled to the floor, and marks from the axes of lovers of cave exotics are visible on the walls.
The cave is still worth visiting: even despite the desolation, you can feel some mysticism and awe of history in it.
Gugerdzhin Cave:
It has an entrance well of up to 20 meters, with a total length of 60 m. The cave is located in the forest 50 m south of Thousand-Headed and not far from the Onyx shelter. Gugerdzhin is one of the most popular caves among novice speleologists. It has one hall, divided into six chambers. The cave is easy to descend/ascend and very beautiful.
The Bottomless Cave is located in Crimea, on the lower plateau of Chatyr-Dag. Other names for this Crimean cave are Bottomless Well and Bottomless Mine. By modern ideas geology, this Crimean cave is not a well, but a complex combination of a shaft opening the cave and the cave itself. The Bottomless Cave has become known since the end of the 19th century. This Crimean cave is of a vertical type, the entrance to it is located at an altitude of about 1 km, at the bottom of a karst funnel. The total length of the Bezdonnaya cave is 410 meters, its depth is about 195 meters.
The descent into the cave is not equipped for regular visits. You can get into this mysterious cave in Crimea only with equipment, as part of a group of speleologists or athletes.
Montenegro never ceases to attract and surprise tourists from all over the world with the wonders of nature, not only in the summer with its warm Adriatic Sea and its diverse or winter -. Besides this, Montenegro has a lot of interesting, unusual and memorable things. Throughout the year, lovers of active and extreme recreation, rock climbers and speleologists are literally lured by the majestic Montenegrin mountains, which have preserved their pristine wild beauty, and little-explored caves, hidden from the eyes of people in the bowels of the earth for many millennia.
According to speleologists, in Montenegro there is over 10 thousand different caves, but, unfortunately, due to the complexity of the route, many caves are accessible only to specialist speleologists, as well as well-trained extreme sports enthusiasts.
In fairness, it is also worth noting that some caves in Montenegro are among the most beautiful speleological sites on a European and world scale. It is quite difficult to say which of the many caves in Montenegro is the most beautiful - they are all amazing and beautiful in their own way. In this article we will tell you about one of them...
The Ice Age left behind inaccessible rocks, deep canyons and many caves, one of which is the most famous, is located in the central part of Montenegro and bears the name Icy.
Ice cave in national park Durmitor.
Among all the attractions of Montenegro, it is very popular among lovers active rest and enjoys Ice cave, lying in the depths of the mountain at an altitude of 2180 meters above sea level in the central part of Montenegro. It is located 7 kilometers from the city, on the north-eastern slope of a mountain, which from a distance resembles a human head, which is why it is popularly called - Regional Head(Obla Glava from Black meaning “round head”).
Cave coordinates: longitude 19.1064 latitude 43.1549
The ice cave is one of the wonders of nature in the territory, which, in turn, has been a natural pearl of Montenegro for many years and was included in the list in 1980 List world heritage UNESCO.
The entrance to the cave is covered with snow throughout the year, since in this place the mountain has a steep slope and the sun almost never appears here. The descent directly into the cave is at a very steep angle and the covering of compacted snow is almost always icy. It’s not so easy for even an experienced climber to go down there, but for an amateur it will be safer to admire the frozen beauties from a distance. But if you have already decided, then be extremely careful when going down and, most importantly, carefully look at your feet.
Lifehack: Getting inside the cave can sometimes be quite difficult without special equipment and preparation, so for amateurs, the most convenient time of year to visit the cave is the hot summer months. Better yet, go on a tour with an experienced instructor.
Inside the Ice Cave, there is an unusual natural museum of ice figures - numerous stalactites and stalagmites, of various shapes and sizes, which do not melt even in the hottest weather. Basically, they resemble tall columns with a hole in the middle, since they are formed from water dripping from above and then freezing in the form of an ice column.
The length of the entire cave is about 100 meters, and one of its ice halls reaches 20 meters in width and 40 meters in length.
Interesting Facts: Even in the middle of the hottest summer months, water so cold is constantly dripping from somewhere from the ceiling of the cave that taking it into the palm of your hand freezes your blood. It is these drops that drip and freeze naturally that form numerous intricate ice decorations, from the smallest to those that reach the height of a man.
The bottom of the cave is also covered with ice, and some of the depressions form peculiar pools filled with water. From the main entrance, several long corridors go deep into the Ice Cave, which attract many brave tourists who want to explore all the trails of Zabljak.
Lifehack: There is quite a lot of water in the cave - it drips literally from everywhere, and it is also crystal clear. That is why this place is ideal to replenish drinking water containers for the return trip.
Naturally, all this natural splendor, the mesmerizing beauty of the underground kingdom, cold mountain air, clear water, absolutely transparent ice and constant low temperature, which preserves all the cave treasures in their original form, annually attracts many different people visiting Montenegro. In order to conquer the mountain peaks in Durmitor and see an unusual cave, many tourists are organized into walking excursion groups, and some experienced climbers decide to do it in pairs or alone.
Hike to the Ice Cave.
The ice cave in Montenegro is available for visiting and exploration throughout the year. Several mountain walking paths of varying difficulty lead to it, many of which originate from the famous one, located near the town of Zabljak. A one-way hike to the Ice Cave, with rests and stops for photo sessions, will take 2-3 hours, and the total duration of the route can be from four to six hours, depending on preparation. But, believe me, the hike along its mountain ranges, as well as the descent into the kingdom of natural ice sculptures, is really worth it.
Lifehack: In addition to all the well-known trails, there is another shorter path, which begins from the Sedlo pass in Durmitor National Park. Whichever one you choose, you should not forget that in the mountains there can be snow until mid-June and, accordingly, you need to carefully select equipment for the hike.
Along the entire path there are signs and special marks - red circles that help tourists not to go astray from the route. But despite this, it is quite difficult to find the Ice Cave on your own - so many tourists hire a guide for the hike. 
When you reach your goal, magnificent views of the mountain ranges Durmitor, forests and, hidden among centuries-old trees, the Black Lake and the city of Zabljak.
If you really love real adventures, are ready to experience an explosion of positive emotions and are not afraid of difficulties, then don’t hesitate to go to the Ice Cave and your trip will be 100% worth it!