Veryovkina Cave, Limestone cave in Gagra District, Abkhazia
The site opens as a narrow entrance on a rocky slope of the Arabika Massif, leading into a system of shafts and passages that descend through layers of limestone. The route inside combines vertical drops with narrow horizontal sections, forming a labyrinth that extends deeper than any other explored formation of its kind.
Speleologists from Krasnoyarsk located the entrance in 1968 and recorded an initial depth of around 115 meters (377 feet). Later teams pushed further down through the decades, reaching the current known limit of 2,212 meters (7,257 feet) in 2018.
The cave was renamed in 1986 after Aleksandr Veryovkin, a caver and cave diver who died in 1983 while exploring a siphon in the Su-Akan cave in the Sary-Tala massif, now in Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia. Before that it carried the survey labels S-115 and P1-7.
Entry beyond the initial chamber requires specialized climbing gear, prior permission from regional authorities, and experience with vertical underground work. Conditions inside remain cold throughout the year, with walls that are often wet and slippery.
The 2024 survey by the Perovo club reduced the figure to 2,209 m (7,247 ft) after the stream at the bottom was linked to the Blue Lake on the surface and the height difference was measured with a GNSS receiver. The cave is the second deepest known, after Krubera Cave in the same massif.
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