Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages. The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits.
The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá is an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 metres (660 ft) underground in a halite mountain near the city of Zipaquirá, in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It is a tourist destination and place of pilgrimage in the country. The temple at the bottom has three sections, representing the birth, life, and death of Jesus. The icons, ornaments and architectural details are hand carved in the halite rock. Some marble sculptures are included. The cathedral is considered one of the most notable achievements of Colombian architecture, being described as a "Jewel of Modern Architecture". The cathedral represents a valuable cultural, environmental and religious patrimony for the Colombian people.
Grotta Gigante, also known as Riesengrotte or as Grotta di Brisciachi, is a giant cave on the Italian side of the Trieste Karst (Carso), close to the village of Borgo Grotta Gigante or Briščiki in the municipality of Sgonico. Its central cavern is 107 m (351 ft) high, 65 m (213 ft) wide and 130 m (430 ft) long, putting it in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest show cave. This record was broken in 2010 when La Verna cave in the south west of France was opened to tourists, measuring 255 by 225 by 195 metres.
An ice cave is any type of natural cave that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all year round, and water must have traveled into the cave’s cold zone.
The Wieliczka Salt Mine is a salt mine in the town of Wieliczka, near Kraków in southern Poland.
Camerano is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Ancona in the Italian region Marche, located about 10 kilometres (6 mi) southeast of Ancona.
Genga is a town and comune of province of Ancona in the Italian region of the Marche, on the Sentino river about 7 kilometres (4 mi) downstream and east of Sassoferrato and 12 kilometres (7 mi) north of Fabriano.
The Chełm Chalk Tunnels are a system of tunnels dug into the chalk under the city of Chełm in eastern Poland. The tunnelling began in the Middle Ages for chalk mining and was discontinued in the 19th century. The tunnels also served Chełm's inhabitants as shelters during raids, wars and pillage. The system is now open solely for tourists. In total, the network of tunnels stretches for around 15 kilometres.
Maurizio Montalbini was an Italian sociologist and caver who had lived in complete isolation in an underground chamber multiple times since 1986.
The Bochnia Salt Mine in Bochnia, Poland, is one of the oldest salt mines in the world and is the oldest commercial company in Poland. The Bochnia salt mine was established in 1248 after salt had been discovered there in the 12th and 13th centuries and became part of the royal mining company, Żupy krakowskie. In 1990, the mine ceased producing salt but remained a tourist attraction.
Speleotherapy is an alternative medicine respiratory therapy involving breathing inside subterranean environments, such as a cave.
The Castellana Caves are a karst cave system located in the municipality of Castellana Grotte, in the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy.
Michel Siffre is a French underground explorer, adventurer and scientist. He was born in Nice, where he spent his childhood.
Grand Roc is a mountain of Savoie, France. It lies in the Massif de la Vanoise range. It has an elevation of 3,316 m (10,879 ft) above sea level.
Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, formerly known as Thiobacillus thiooxidans until its reclassification into the newly designated genus Acidithiobacillus of the Acidithiobacillia subclass of Pseudomonadota, is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that uses sulfur as its primary energy source. It is mesophilic, with a temperature optimum of 28 °C. This bacterium is commonly found in soil, sewer pipes, and cave biofilms called snottites. A. thiooxidans is used in the mining technique known as bioleaching, where metals are extracted from their ores through the action of microbes.
Grotta Regina del Carso is a Karst cave in the village of San Michele del Carso in the municipality of Savogna d'Isonzo. The cave is not open to public, and the access is managed by Talpe del Carso/Kraški Krti speleological group, headquartered in the vicinity of the entrance.
Grotta del Gelo is a volcanic cave of Mount Etna which is known for the presence of a large amount of ice. The cave formed in 1614–1624 during a large eruption of the volcano, inside one of the lava flows produced during that eruption. Within the two subsequent decades, ice grew and accumulated in the cave. Today it is a tourist destination.
