Lombrives, Cave in Ussat, France
Lombrives is a cave system with underground passages that stretch through a limestone massif between two valleys and connect several large chambers. The routes lead through rooms of different sizes, shaped by natural formations of stone.
People lived here as early as the Neolithic period, and later religious communities used the cave as a refuge during the Middle Ages. The underground chambers served as shelter and hiding place over centuries.
The Cathedral Chamber reaches a height of 80 meters and contains enough space to fit the entire Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris inside its walls.
There are several guided tours of different lengths that explore different parts of the cave and can be chosen according to physical condition. Warm clothing is recommended year-round, as the temperature underground remains constantly low.
Volunteers lived here for weeks without daylight or clocks to study how humans perceive time underground. The experiment took place in one of the larger chambers, where participants were completely cut off from the outside world.
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