Vladimir Dolgiy
Photos by Victor Nikonov

Over the course of millions of years, nature has created numerous of caves in the mountains of Uzbekistan. Every cave is unique in its own way. They differ in size, depth and rock type and are distinguished by long labyrinths, bottomless pits and the beauty of their underground halls not created by human beings.

The caves are usually formed in highly-soluble geological rocks (limestone, gypsum, chalk and salt).Rain and snow water penetrate deeply into the ground drop by drop, through almost invisible cracks, dissolving the rock and generating vast underground halls and labyrinths .The water is only the generator of caves, but is also a tireless visionary-decorator ornamenting the ceilings and the walls with queer curtains and flowers, stalactites and stalagmites of different sizes and colors.
Caves are perhaps the only geographical objects on Earth which have not all been discovered and which still continue to hold many unexplored things (in contrast to mountains whose true altitudes have been know for a long time).

The world's largest Mammoth Cave is located in Kentucky, USA. It's composed of passages on five levels 563 km long

The real sensation in speleological discoveries started in Uzbekistan in the beginning of 70-s.As a result of such discoveries more then 600 caves were detected, among them the deepest abyss of the continent of Asia:  Boy-Bulok and Kievskaya, the 16 km long labyrinth of the Festivalnaya-Vodopadnaya cave system. It is worth considering these natural masterpieces in more detail. The deepest cave of the continent of Asia-Boy Bulok (-1415m) is situated in Surkhandarja region, 60 kilometers from Baysun regional center, in Chul-Bair mountain range (part of Surhantau mountain range). The inhabitants discovered the entrance into this cave a long time ago, as the whole year round a small stream flows out from it, but nobody dared   to go into for a long time , especially after the event when one of the town inhabitants, a the teacher named Mustafa , vanished in the cave. Only after 20 years were his remains taken out of the cave by speleologists from Sverdlovsk.

The deepest cave explored is Krubera-Voronja. It's 2100 m deep. It's located in the Arabica Massif, Abkhazia.

Year by year, due to their diligence and great efforts, the cave opened its secrets, and at last in 1995 at a depth of 1415 m its lowest point was reached. Further on the way blocked by an impassable siphon (passage filled with water). This cave is absolutely unique : it has only three shafts , the depth of each is20-30 m, but also an uncountable number of terraces , the height of each is up to 8 meters and one solid  narrow meander (curved crack with the width of 0,5 -2 m) at the bottom of which stream is flowing.
 After reaching the bottom of the cave, the investigation of its side passages was started. At last one more gallery was found in the wall of the main entrance at a height of 3 meters. It led to the new younger part of the cave with bigger and deeper inner shafts. But this very promising (regarding further possible discoveries) part of the cave ended with a big blocking landside in a huge hall at the depth of 680m. The investigations are still going on because the potential amplitude of the cave (the interval between its highest and lowest points) might be increased one kilometer more due to ascending passages and could give rise to the formation of the biggest cave amplitude ever recorder before  more than 2,5 km ! Another big Festivalnaya  Ledopadnaya cave system is situated in Surkhandarja river near Kayrak village (Baisun region) in Hodga-Gur-Gur-Ata mountain range (part of Baisuntau mountain range).This system was also discovered by sportsmen-speleologists from Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg). First Yubilejnaya and Berloga caves were discovered, and then the investigation of Festivalnaya cave was started. The entrance into this cave is 200 meters higher than the foot of the huge and almost vertical wall which stretches from the North to the south for 40 kilometers. The absolute reference mark of the entrance is 3445m above the sea level. As the result of 3-year explorations, about 12 kilometers of underground labyrinths were put on the map.

In the 1993 the investigation of Ledopadnaya cave began. The cave was given this name, because of the big glacier which "falls" into the internal 40m depth shaft. As the result of the investigation of this cave a marked picket which was left after carrying out the topographical survey in Festivalnaya cave was found at the depth of 800m. In such it became clear that this caves were united into one underground system with the total length of passages more than 16 km. in 3 points of this system, depths of 420 m, 565m and 580 m were reached. For the moment the speleologists have not been able to pass further, but the potential of the region is very big. The supposed amplitude from the entrance of the cave up to Machaj  spring (the velocity of the water outflow is about 1m3/sec ) is more than 2,5 km. more than 20 caves were detected in this region very close to each other.

    Careful investigation of the vast labyrinth is necessary in the cave itself where new extensions and even joints with nearby caves are probable. One bigger cave, Kievskaya, is situated in the Urgutskij    district of Samarqand region near Kamangaran village on Kirktau mountain range (part of Zaravshan mountain range). This cave was discovered in 1994 by speleologist from Kiev. As the result of 3- year investigations the maximum depth of 990 was reached .The cave consists of a vertical shaft and more than 30 layers joined by shafts with depths from10-90m located one over another. The cave ends with a lake of almost 10 m depth. Attempts to dive with an aqualung lower than that mark failed: it was impossible to dive down through the narrow crevasses. In the middle of the 90-s, Kievskaya cave was the deepest in the territory of the former Soviet Union. More than 100 caves are situated on Kirktau plateau. The Polatkhan cave is hidden on the plateau of the same name in Gazalkent district of Tashkent province in the mountains of South West Tien-Shan. It was discovered by speleologists from Novosibirsk in1998 .the following year the cave was passed through to the depth of more than 400 meters. Later in the course of the joint Tashkent and Novosibirsk expedition, speleologists reached a depth of 508 meters. The cave consists of a vertical shaft with wells up to 80m deep. The Amir Temur cave is very attractive. It is situated in the mountains of Gissar mountain range near Tashkurgan village (Kitab district of Kashkadarya province).the entrance is situated in the board of a huge canyon, the walls of which reach a height of 400 meters. The cave is not so big (the length of passages is about of 400 meters)  but it is one of the most popular. It is related to the legend about the young ages of Amir Temur. An ancient stone laying near the entrance to the cave and completed ceiling confirms the fact that the cave was used by people since ancient times. A big lake is at the end of the cave.
    It is not know how many caves are within the territory of Uzbekistan, but they are all waiting to be explored by speleologist and ready to open their secrets.