Among the First in the World with Emil Racovita Cave
By Diana Ungureanu/ Chisinau/ Moldova.ORG/ -- One of the largest caves in the world is in the gypsum rocks from Criva village, in Edinet (265 km north of Chisinau).
It has a length of cellars of 89,000 m and branches on several levels. These facts place this cave on the third place among the gypsum caves and on the eighth place in the ranking of all giant undergrounds on the Earth.
The cave was discovered in 1959 after an explosion at the gypsum quarry from Criva. After being released of underground waters, it had been mapped by speleologist. They found a lot of impressive size rooms: “Cinderella’s Hall”, the “Hall with Colonnades”, “Dacia’s Hall”, the “One Hundred Meters Hall” and a suite of galleries that create genuine underground labyrinths, where you can easily get lost.
Thus, from the total volume of 18 million cubic meters of emptiness, about 7 million cubic meters of emptiness from the European Podolian region is on the territory of Republic of Moldova.
In the cave there are two wells that connect different underground levels. Some are permanently flooded by abundant groundwater. Several lakes have been discovered: “Blue Lake”, “Dinosaur Lake”, “Lake Nautilus” etc. After the hydro-chemical analysis, it was discovered these lakes are rich in mineral salt content, which have a curative effect on the human body.
Every cave gallery is unaccountable lined inside with clay of different shades: blue, green, red, black, white. Lay speleologists made different clay figures, which served as ingenious indicators for halls and galleries that are interesting for visitors. Underground routes are not marked.
This cave can be a very important objective for tourism development in Moldova. The cave also has a special value from the balneological point of view because of the presence of the underground mineral lakes and large reserves of ionized air.
Comments