Gouffre de Cabrespine, Show cave in Cabrespine, Aude, France
Gouffre de Cabrespine is a limestone cave featuring a spacious main chamber alongside branching underground passages filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and underground pools. The interconnected tunnels descend deep into the mountain in a natural network of rooms and corridors.
The cavity was explored in 1934 by the Spéléo-Club de l'Aude, though documents mention it as early as the 16th century. Pottery and tools found inside attest to its long use by people. It was opened to the public in 1988, and by 2017 its passages were surveyed at 22,500 m long and 504 m deep.
The historical entrance, Lo Gaugnas, means "the great cave" in Occitan. Excavations in the cavity yielded pottery and tools attesting to its early use by people, and the cave is cited in documents dating back to the 16th century.
Visitors enter through guided tours with different routes available for varying experience levels. Sturdy footwear and a jacket are recommended since underground temperatures remain cool throughout the year.
The cave's concretions include aragonite clusters that Michel Siffre described in 1981 as of a size found nowhere else in the world. The Salles rouges hold calcite discs weighing several hundred kilos, suspended from the vault and coloured ochre by iron oxide.
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