Speleology - the science of caves, which arose at the intersection of geography, mineralogy and hydrology, can be called one of the most romantic sciences. The secrets of the depths of the earth, underground "halls" decorated with columns of stalactites and stalagmites - all this is revealed to the eyes of people exploring the caves.
Not all caves on Earth are known to speleologists, and many of those that have already been discovered have not been fully explored. Therefore, it is impossible to say with certainty this or that cave "the deepest on Earth", because at any moment the researchers can discover a deeper one. We can only talk about the deepest of those caves that have been explored to date.
The deepest cave in the world
The "record holder" among the caves in terms of depth is the Krubera-Voronya Cave, located in Abkhazia in the Arabica mountain range, not far from the resort town of Gagra.
The discoverers of this cave were Georgian speleologists headed by L. Maruashvili. The name was given to it in honor of the Russian scientist A. Kruber, the founder of Russian karstology. When the cave was opened, no one called it the deepest, because the researchers managed to descend only 150 m.
In subsequent years, research continued. In 1968 a group of speleologists from Krasnoyarsk descended to 210 m, in 1987 Kiev explorers climbed 340 m and gave the cave a second name - Voronya. Further research was prevented by the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-1993, but in 1999 the Ukrainians explored the cave again and reached 700 m, the next year - up to 1410, and in 2001 a joint expedition of Kiev and Moscow researchers reached depth in 1710 m, where it was stopped by a blockage.
The cave is a very complex structure. Using the side siphons, subsequent expeditions were able to advance further: 2003 - 1680 m, 2004 - 1775 m, and in 2005 the boundary of 2000 m was overcome, this has never happened in the history of speleology.
And finally, a speleologist from Crimea G. Samokhin set a record - 2196 m. True, researchers suggest that the cave may be even deeper, but there is no direct evidence.
The deepest cave in Russia
The deepest cave in the territory of the Russian Federation is located in Karachay-Cherkessia in the upper reaches of the Atsgara River, a tributary of the Urup River.
This cave was discovered and explored in 1994 by speleologists from Rostov-on-Don. A. Lizogub is considered the discoverer - it was this explorer who discovered the entrance to the cave.
Cavers named the cave "Barlog's Throat" - in honor of the monster from JRR Tolkien's epic "The Lord of the Rings". Descent into this vertical cave really resembles the movement down the throat of some gigantic creature.
Topographic survey using hydraulic leveling showed that the depth of the cave is 839 m, and the length is about 3 km.
