Wookey Hole Caves are a series of limestone caverns, a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England. The River Axe flows through the cave. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for both biological and geological reasons. Wookey Hole cave is a "solutional cave", one that is formed by a process of weathering in which the natural acid in groundwater dissolves the rocks. Some water originates as rain that flows into streams on impervious rocks on the plateau before sinking at the limestone boundary into cave systems such as Swildon's Hole, Eastwater Cavern and St Cuthbert's Swallet; the rest is rain that percolates directly through the limestone. The temperature in the caves is a constant 11 °C (52 °F).
At 150.4 miles (242.0 km), Lechuguilla Cave is the eighth-longest explored cave in the world and the second deepest in the continental United States. It is most famous for its unusual geology, rare formations, and pristine condition.
Swildon's Hole is an extensive cave in Priddy, Somerset. At 9,144 metres (30,000 ft) in length, it is the longest cave on the Mendip Hills. It has been found to be connected to Priddy Green Sink and forms part of the Priddy Caves Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The Cave Diving Group (CDG) is a United Kingdom-based diver training organisation specialising in cave diving.
Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, also known informally as OFD, is a cave under a hillside in the area surrounding Penwyllt in the Upper Swansea Valley in South Wales. It is the second longest cave in Wales and the deepest in the United Kingdom.
Sarawak Chamber is the largest known cave chamber in the world by area and the second largest by volume after the Miao Room in China. It is in Gua Nasib Bagus, which is located in Gunung Mulu National Park, in the Malaysian Territory of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.
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.
Gunung Buda National Park is a national park located in Limbang Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. It is located to the north of Gunung Mulu National Park. Gunung Buda National Park was gazetted in 2001. As in September 2017, the national park was in the planning stage for tourism activities. Roads were also planned to connect Gunung Buda with Gunung Mulu National Park. Gunung Buda meaning White Hill in Lun Bawang language.
A cave survey is a map of all or part of a cave system, which may be produced to meet differing standards of accuracy depending on the cave conditions and equipment available underground. Cave surveying and cartography, i.e. the creation of an accurate, detailed map, is one of the most common technical activities undertaken within a cave and is a fundamental part of speleology. Surveys can be used to compare caves to each other by length, depth and volume, may reveal clues on speleogenesis, provide a spatial reference for other areas of scientific study and assist visitors with route-finding.
The caves of the Mendip Hills are formed by the particular geology of the Mendip Hills: large areas of limestone worn away by water makes it a national centre for caving. The hills conceal the largest underground river system in Britain.
St Cuthbert's Swallet is the second longest, and most complex, cave on the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It forms a major part of the Priddy Caves system and water entering this swallet re-emerges at Wookey Hole. St Cuthbert's Swallet is part of, and lies underneath, the Priddy Pools Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Recreational caving in the United Kingdom dates back to the mid-19th century. The four major caving areas of the United Kingdom are North Yorkshire, South Wales, Derbyshire, and the Mendips. Minor areas include Devon, North Wales, and the Scottish Highlands.
Francis Graham Balcombe was a pioneer of cave diving in the United Kingdom and a founder of the Cave Diving Group together with Jack Sheppard.
Martyn Farr is a leading exploratory cave diver and caver, known for his record-breaking cave dives and the exploration of many miles of previously undiscovered underground passages. As an author and photographer he has written many books on the subject of cave diving history and techniques and caving locations.
Therion is free and open-source cave surveying software designed to process survey data, generate maps and 3D models of caves, and archive the data describing the cave and the history of exploration.
The Clearwater Cave System in Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia is believed to be one of the largest interconnected cave systems in the world by volume and the 9th longest cave in the world at 236.796 km (147.138 mi) (2020). The system lies mainly under the western margins of Gunung Api between the Melinau Gorge and Cave of the Winds.
