Europe Explored » Caves

Gouffre Mirolda – the deepest cave in Europe (1733m)

Claire — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:31:11 +0000

Gouffre Mirolda is the deepest cave of France, located in the Savoy Alps, in the village of Samoëns, near the Italian and Swiss borders.

In 1998, the French-English team got to a depth of 1626 meters after staying underground for almost 103 hours and the cave at that moment became the deepest cave in the world. New measures and explores have been done on January 2003, and the depth of this cave has been increased to 1733 meters. This makes it the 3rd deepest cave in the world (after the Krubera (Voronja) Cave in Georgia – 2191m and Illyuzia-Mezhonnogo-Snezhnaya Cave in Georgia – 1753m) and the deepest cave in Europe.

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Gouffre de Padirac – great limestone cave in France

Claire — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:03:08 +0000

Gouffre de Padirac (Padirac Cave) is a great limestone cave and a natural monument located in south-western part of France, about 20 km east of the medieval pilgrimage town of Rocamadour.

Gouffre de Padirac cave has a depth about 100 meters and is more than 100 m wide. Visitors can see impressive underground lakes here, as well as beautiful formations of stalactites and limestone waterfalls. The tour through the cave takes about 1.5 hour and it is divided in both walking and partially on boat. The huge number of visitors during the summer season is quite a big disadvantage.

Gouffre de Padirac cave is best accessible by car or by train. The nearest train station is located about 10 km west from the cave. Till now, more than 20 million visitors saw the cave.

Gouffre de Padirac is open daily from April to November. Basic admission fee is €9.40.

For more information about the cave, please visit official website here.

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Lascaux caves in France – famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings

Claire — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:28:38 +0000

In Lascaux there is a complex of caves, which is famous for its prehistoric paintings. You can find the caves near the village Montignac in an imaginary triangle between Périgueux, Limoges and Tulle. If you take a trip to Brive la Gaillarde, you’ll be just a few steps away. Inside the Lascaux caves you see the cave paintings dating back to the Stone Age, to the younger Palaeolithic. In almost 2,000 figures these are mostly paintings of animals – horses, but sometimes people as well.

The story of the accidental discovery of the cave is taught in school. It’s the old story of how four children who were playing on the field accidentally fell into a cave and discovered a valuable relic. This cave was discovered in 1940, and was opened to the public several years after the war. However, in 1955 it was found that breathing of thousands of visitors decreases the clarity of color paintings. Therefore, the cave was closed to the public and now you can visit only its replica, called Lascaux II, serving visitors since 1983.

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