Gruta de Maquiné, Limestone cave in Cordisburgo, Brazil.

Gruta de Maquiné is a limestone cave in Cordisburgo featuring seven chambers that wind through about 650 meters of underground passages. The rooms display a variety of stalactites and stalagmites in different colors and shapes, along with mineral deposits and spacious galleries that let you walk through multiple levels of the cave system.

Farmer Joaquim Maria Maquiné discovered the cave in 1825 on his land. Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund explored it scientifically from 1834, spending nearly two years inside, describing the chambers and stalactite formation. In 1835 he found the fossil skeleton of Nothrotherium maquinense, the smallest ground sloth, and remains of Quaternary animals and humans.

The cave takes its name from Joaquim Maria Maquiné, the farmer who found it in 1825; Lapa Nova is the alternative name. Guides point out the chambers named after shapes in the rock, such as the Altar or Throne and the Lamb, and the Hall of the Fairies, which Lund called the most beautiful sight in nature and art.

The internal temperature ranges from 26 to 27 °C, so light clothing is more useful than a jacket. The route is essentially horizontal, with only 18 m of unevenness across the seven chambers, and lighting, walkways and handrails are installed throughout. Local guides accompany visits, and the entrance portico is about 18 m wide and 8 m high.

The sixth chamber, Salão das Fadas, is where bones of large animals, including mammoth remains, were found. Its walls and figures carry a crust of calcium carbonate crystals, white or coloured, and a limpid cascade has condensed into bright alabaster. Peter Wilhelm Lund wrote that his eyes had never seen anything more beautiful in nature and art.