A tour of the incredible Son Doong Grotto, the largest cavern in the world

@ElentirENG ES 8·28·2023 · 23:27 0

The world is full of fascinating places, and no matter how many you have seen, there will always be amazing places left for you to discover.

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With the advent of artificial satellites, which allowed us to observe and photograph the entire surface of the Earth, the idea spread that the world had exhausted all its possibilities for modern explorers. In 1991, a local from Quảng Bình province, in central Vietnam, discovered the entrance to a cave.

Years later, this Vietnamese man reported his discovery to a group of members of the British Cave Research Association ( BCRA) that were touring that area. Finally, this group was able to explore the cave for several days in April 2009, encountering one of the greatest natural wonders in the world.

What those British explorers saw was somewhat surprising: a colossal grotto with a length of more than 5 kilometers, 150 meters wide and a height of 200 meters. The volume of this cave is 1.6 million cubic meters, which makes it the largest cavern in the world. It is crossed by a river and inside there are some of the largest stalactites that are known, of more than 70 meters of height.

Despite its recent discovery, this cave could be up to 5 million years old, and inside there is a small jungle. Its size is so large that Condé Nast Traveler noted: "The scale of the site’s interior is so massive it could fit an entire New York block inside, including skyscrapers, or have a Boeing 747 comfortably fly through without its wings being in any danger."

In May, the channel Our World published a report traveling inside this huge cavern:

You can see below some screenshots of the video. The cave has an ideal aspect to shoot a science-fiction movie.

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Main image: Our World.