Postojna Cave, Show cave in Postojna, Slovenia
Postojna Cave is a 24.34 km karst system carved by the Pivka River, of which about 5 km is open to visitors. Pale cream and tan stalagmites, stalactites and curtain-like draperies fill the chambers; a tall ridged column rises from the floor beside a shorter knobbly mound, with a low stone wall and dark metal railing behind them.
Graffiti dated 1213 shows the cave was visited long before Johann Weikhard von Valvasor described it in 1689. In 1818, while preparing for Emperor Francis I, lamp keeper Luka Čeč found new passages; he became the first official guide when the cave opened to tourists in 1819. Adolf Schmidl published the first scientific overview in the 1850s.
Locals called the olm, the cave's endemic amphibian, "dragon's young" after its first sightings around 1700. In 1831 Luka Čeč found the beetle Leptodirus hochenwartii here, which spurred cave-fauna research; 84 species are now recorded. The Concert Hall chamber has held up to 10,000 people, and in 2012 it hosted the EuroBasket 2013 group draw, the first held underground.
Tours combine a train ride through illuminated passages with a walking section on marked paths through the cave. Both parts are accessible to most visitors, though some areas have steps and uneven ground.
An underground post office has operated inside the cave since 1899, where visitors can have letters stamped and mailed from underground. The cave maintains a constant temperature of 10 degrees Celsius year-round, creating a cool environment regardless of the season.
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