Those who love caves will love these pictures of the world’s largest cave recently discovered in Vietnam called Hang Son Doong (Mountain River Cave).
At more than 200m high, 150m wide and 5km long, the Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam is so big it has its own river, jungle and climate.
It’s believed to be almost twice the size of the current record holder. Son Doong has replaced the Deer cave in Malaysia to become the world’s largest cave. It’s amazing that there are still places like this still out there waiting to be explored. A British caving team have just recently explored the world’s largest cave passage in the heart of the Vietnamese jungle.
‘It is a truly amazing sized cave and one of the most significant discoveries by a British caving team,’ said Adam Spillane, a member of the 13-man expedition team.
Using a laser measuring device known as the LaserRace 300, which measures height and width, the team are now back in the UK analysing their readings.
The cave was originally discovered in 1991 by a Vietnamese Jungle man called Ho Khanh. However Mr Spillane said no-one had entered if before because: ‘it emitted a frightful wind and noise which was due to a large underground river.’ They spent five days exploring the cave in Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park through mid-April.
‘The cave is 6.5km long at present but the end of the main passage still continues with a calcite wall of over 45m high halting our progress,’ Mr Spillane said.’ ‘More work on the next expedition is required to make a complete exploration of Hang Son Doong and obtain a complete photographic record of the cave. ’
Explore Hang Son Doong cave on your computer
You can explore the cave yourself without having to physically go there with National Geographic using this link.
They also have a website which is www.sondoongcave.org
