Škocjan Caves
Encyclopedia
Skocjan Caves is a cave system in Slovenia. Due to its exceptional significance, Škocjan Caves was entered on UNESCO
’s list of natural and cultural world heritage site
s in 1986. International scientific circles have thus acknowledged the importance of the caves as one of the natural treasures of planet Earth
. Ranking among the most important caves in the world, Škocjan Caves represents the most significant underground phenomena in both the Karst
region and Slovenia
. Following its independence, the Republic of Slovenia committed itself to actively protecting the Škocjan Caves area; for this reason, it established the Škocjan Caves Regional Park, Slovenia
and its Managing Authority, the Škocjan Caves Park Public Service Agency.
of global significance, ranking side by side with the Grand Canyon
, the Great Barrier Reef
, the Galapagos Islands
, Mount Everest
, and others. Ranking among the most important caves in the world, Škocjan Caves represents the most significant underground phenomena in both the Karst
region and Slovenia
. Škocjan Caves was also entered on the List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance on 18 May 1999. Together with the underground stream of the Reka River
, they represent one of the longest karst underground wetlands in Europe
.
The Reka River disappears underground at Velika Dolina into Škocjan Caves and then flows underground for 34 km towards the Adriatic Sea
surfacing near Monfalcone
where it becomes the source of the Timavo
River. The view of the big river, in the rainy season as it disappears underground, on the bottom of Velika Dolina, 160 m under the surface, is both majestic and frightening.
The exceptional volume of the underground canyon is what distinguishes Škocjan Caves from other caves and places it among the most famous underground features in the world. The river flowing through the underground canyon turns northwest before the Cerkvenik Bridge and continues its course along Hanke's Channel. This underground channel is approximately 3.5 km long, 10 to 60 m wide and over 140 m high. At some points, it expands into huge underground chambers. The largest of these is Martel's Chamber with a volume of 2.2 million cubic m and it is considered the largest discovered underground chamber in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It is interesting to note that an underground canyon of such dimensions ends with a relatively small siphon
: one that cannot deal with the enormous volume of water that pours into the cave after heavy rainfall, causing major flooding, during which water levels can rise by more than one hundred metres.
(2nd century B.C.) by Posidonius of Apamea and they are marked on the oldest published maps of this part of the world; for example the Lazius-Ortelius map from 1561 and Mercator's Novus Atlas from 1637. The fact that the French painter Louis-François Cassas
(1782) was commissioned to paint some landscape pieces also proves that in the 18th century the caves were considered one of the most important natural features in the Trieste
hinterland. His paintings testify that at that time people visited the bottom of Velika dolina. The Slovenian scholar Janez Vajkard Valvasor
described the sink of the Reka River and its underground flow in 1689.
In order to supply Trieste with drinking water, an attempt was made to follow the underground course of the Reka River. The deep shafts in the Karst were explored as well as Škocjan Caves. The systematic exploration of Škocjan Caves began in 1884 of a speleology
division. Explorers reached the banks of Mrtvo jezero (Dead Lake) in 1890. The last major achievement was the discovery of Tiha jama (Silent Cave) in 1904, when some local men climbed the sixty-metre wall of Müller Hall. The next important event took place in 1990, nearly 100 years after the discovery of Mrtvo jezero (Dead Lake). Slovenian divers managed to swim through the siphon Ledeni dihnik and discovered over 200 m of new cave passages.
is archeologically extremely rich, indications are that it was inhabited since more than ten thousand years before the present. A valuable treasure of archeological findings in 'Mušja Jama' indicate the influence of the Greek
civilization, where a cave temple was located after the end of the Bronze Age
and in the Iron Age
. This region was certainly one of the most significant pilgrimage sites in Europe, three thousand years ago, especially in the Mediterranean where it was of important cult significance in connection with the afterlife and communication with the spirits of the ancestors.
, as such, in Škocjan Caves truly commenced. According to some sources, in 1819 the county's councilor Matej Tominc (Tominc Cave is named after him) ordered that the steps to the bottom of Velika dolina be made (according to other sources they were only renovated). On this occasion, more precisely on 1 January 1819, a visitors' book was introduced. This date can unequivocally be considered the beginning of modern tourism in Škocjan Caves.
In recent years Škocjan Caves has around 100,000 visitors per year. Now visitors can view the part of the underground canyon with collapsed doline Velika Dolina. In the second half of 2010 will be re-opened the first part of the Caves - Mariničeva and Mahorčičeva Cave with a collapsed doline Mala dolina.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
’s list of natural and cultural world heritage site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
s in 1986. International scientific circles have thus acknowledged the importance of the caves as one of the natural treasures of planet Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. Ranking among the most important caves in the world, Škocjan Caves represents the most significant underground phenomena in both the Karst
KARST
Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
region and Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. Following its independence, the Republic of Slovenia committed itself to actively protecting the Škocjan Caves area; for this reason, it established the Škocjan Caves Regional Park, Slovenia
Škocjan Caves Regional Park, Slovenia
Škocjan Caves Regional Park is located in the Škocjan Karst, a vast flat landscape that lies at an elevation between 420 and 450 m in the southeast part of the Karst area...
and its Managing Authority, the Škocjan Caves Park Public Service Agency.
Škocjan Caves – World Heritage - UNESCO
- One of the largest known underground canyonCanyonA canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
s in the world - examples of natural beauty with great aesthetic value
- due to particular microclimatic conditions, a special ecosystemEcosystemAn ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
has developed - the area has great cultural and historical significance as it has been inhabited since the prehistoric times
- a typical example of contact karst
Description
Škocjan Caves is, above all, a natural phenomenonPhenomenon
A phenomenon , plural phenomena, is any observable occurrence. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'...
of global significance, ranking side by side with the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
, the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
, the Galapagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
, Mount Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
, and others. Ranking among the most important caves in the world, Škocjan Caves represents the most significant underground phenomena in both the Karst
KARST
Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
region and Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. Škocjan Caves was also entered on the List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance on 18 May 1999. Together with the underground stream of the Reka River
Reka River
The ' , also ' is a river that starts as in Croatia, on the southern side of Mount Snežnik, and flows through western Slovenia. The river is 54 km long. At the village of Škocjan it disappears underground through Škocjan Caves , flowing 38 km underneath the Slovenian Karst...
, they represent one of the longest karst underground wetlands in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
The Reka River disappears underground at Velika Dolina into Škocjan Caves and then flows underground for 34 km towards the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
surfacing near Monfalcone
Monfalcone
Monfalcone is a town and comune of the province of Gorizia , located on the coast of the Gulf of Trieste. Monfalcone means "Mount of Falcon" in Italian....
where it becomes the source of the Timavo
Timavo
The River, known in Slovene as the or , is a 2-km river in the Province of Trieste. It has four sources near San Giovanni near Duino and outflows in the Gulf of Panzano between Trieste and Monfalcone , Italy....
River. The view of the big river, in the rainy season as it disappears underground, on the bottom of Velika Dolina, 160 m under the surface, is both majestic and frightening.
The exceptional volume of the underground canyon is what distinguishes Škocjan Caves from other caves and places it among the most famous underground features in the world. The river flowing through the underground canyon turns northwest before the Cerkvenik Bridge and continues its course along Hanke's Channel. This underground channel is approximately 3.5 km long, 10 to 60 m wide and over 140 m high. At some points, it expands into huge underground chambers. The largest of these is Martel's Chamber with a volume of 2.2 million cubic m and it is considered the largest discovered underground chamber in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It is interesting to note that an underground canyon of such dimensions ends with a relatively small siphon
Siphon
The word siphon is sometimes used to refer to a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. But in the English language today, the word siphon usually refers to a tube in an inverted U shape which causes a liquid to flow uphill, above the surface of the reservoir,...
: one that cannot deal with the enormous volume of water that pours into the cave after heavy rainfall, causing major flooding, during which water levels can rise by more than one hundred metres.
History of exploration
The first written sources on Škocjan Caves originate in the era of AntiquityClassical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
(2nd century B.C.) by Posidonius of Apamea and they are marked on the oldest published maps of this part of the world; for example the Lazius-Ortelius map from 1561 and Mercator's Novus Atlas from 1637. The fact that the French painter Louis-François Cassas
Louis-François Cassas
Louis-François Cassas, born to a poor family on June 3, 1756, was a distinguished French landscape painter, sculptor, architect, archeologist and antiquary born at Azay-le-Ferron, in the Indre Department of France...
(1782) was commissioned to paint some landscape pieces also proves that in the 18th century the caves were considered one of the most important natural features in the Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
hinterland. His paintings testify that at that time people visited the bottom of Velika dolina. The Slovenian scholar Janez Vajkard Valvasor
Janez Vajkard Valvasor
Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor or simply Valvasor was a Slovenian nobleman, scientist and polymath, and a fellow of the Royal Society in London.-Biography:...
described the sink of the Reka River and its underground flow in 1689.
In order to supply Trieste with drinking water, an attempt was made to follow the underground course of the Reka River. The deep shafts in the Karst were explored as well as Škocjan Caves. The systematic exploration of Škocjan Caves began in 1884 of a speleology
Speleology
Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form and change over time...
division. Explorers reached the banks of Mrtvo jezero (Dead Lake) in 1890. The last major achievement was the discovery of Tiha jama (Silent Cave) in 1904, when some local men climbed the sixty-metre wall of Müller Hall. The next important event took place in 1990, nearly 100 years after the discovery of Mrtvo jezero (Dead Lake). Slovenian divers managed to swim through the siphon Ledeni dihnik and discovered over 200 m of new cave passages.
Archaeology
From time immemorial, people have been attracted to the gorge where the Reka River disappears underground as well as the mysterious cave entrances. The Reka River sinks under a rocky wall; on the top of it lies the village of Škocjan after which the caves are named. Škocjan Caves Regional Park, SloveniaŠkocjan Caves Regional Park, Slovenia
Škocjan Caves Regional Park is located in the Škocjan Karst, a vast flat landscape that lies at an elevation between 420 and 450 m in the southeast part of the Karst area...
is archeologically extremely rich, indications are that it was inhabited since more than ten thousand years before the present. A valuable treasure of archeological findings in 'Mušja Jama' indicate the influence of the Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
civilization, where a cave temple was located after the end of the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
and in the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. This region was certainly one of the most significant pilgrimage sites in Europe, three thousand years ago, especially in the Mediterranean where it was of important cult significance in connection with the afterlife and communication with the spirits of the ancestors.
Tourism
It is, however, difficult to establish when tourismTourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, as such, in Škocjan Caves truly commenced. According to some sources, in 1819 the county's councilor Matej Tominc (Tominc Cave is named after him) ordered that the steps to the bottom of Velika dolina be made (according to other sources they were only renovated). On this occasion, more precisely on 1 January 1819, a visitors' book was introduced. This date can unequivocally be considered the beginning of modern tourism in Škocjan Caves.
In recent years Škocjan Caves has around 100,000 visitors per year. Now visitors can view the part of the underground canyon with collapsed doline Velika Dolina. In the second half of 2010 will be re-opened the first part of the Caves - Mariničeva and Mahorčičeva Cave with a collapsed doline Mala dolina.
External links
- Park Škocjanske jame official website
- Škocjan Caves - UNESCO World Heritage Centre listing
- Photos of Škocjan Caves
- Škocjan Caves at Slovenia Landmarks