Gypsum cave
Ice cave
river cave.
| Location: | In the vicinity of Kungur, 100km SE of Perm, east of Moscow. |
| Open: | All year. |
| Fee: | |
| Classification: |
Gypsum cave
Ice cave
river cave.
|
| Light: | electric. |
| Dimension: | L=5,700m, VR=30m, A=142m asl. |
| Guided tours: | L=1,500m. |
| Photography: | |
| Accessibility: | |
| Bibliography: |
V. Andrejchuk, E. Dorofeev, V. Lukin (1997):
Organ pipes in carbonate-sulphate rocks at the Kungur Ice Cave, near Perm, Russia,
Cave and Karst Science, Volume 24, Number 3, December 1997, pp. 101-106 |
| Address: | |
| Last update: | $Date: 2011/12/13 09:06:24 $ |
| 1703 | first survey made by the famous geographer and cartographer S. Remizov. | |
| 1733 | first measurements of the cave climate by Professor I.G. Gmelin. | |
| 1914 | opened to the public. | |
| 1937 | visited by the participants of the International Geological Congress. | |
| 2003 | laser show installed. |
Kungur Cave got its name from the old Russian town Kungur, founded in 1663. It was a center of the copper-smelting industry in the Ural mountains during the 18th and 19th century.
The cave is water filled, it is connected with the nearby Silva river. Twice a year, in spring and in autumn the cave gets flooded. In this time it is not accessible to tourists. During the rest of the year about 60 lakes in the cave are the remains of the vanished subterranean river.
As the name suggests, this cave is famous for its ice formations. The probably strangest ice formations are snowflakes the size of a maple leaf. They change in size during the year and are most spectacular during late winter. March is the best time to visit the cave.
The cave has huge chambers with almost bare walls, typical for gypsum caves. The biggest chamber has a size of 50,000m². Lately the cave was equipped with a laser show, high tech equipment bought in Germany for 1.5 Million Rubles. At first a wall in the chamber called Grotto of Geologists is used to display a laser movie featuring the history of the cave and the Yermak campaign. More chambers will follow.
The cave is known for a long time. The first survey was made by the well-known geographer S.U. Remezov from Tobolsk, who was sent there by a decree of Peter the Great in 1703. This plan was later published all over Europe. The cave was later developed by the local Alexander Timofeyevich Khlebnikov (1877-1951), who was inspired by a visit to Mammoth Cave in U.S.A.. After he returned home, he developed the ice cave and opened it to the public in 1914. At this time the cave had two tour routes with a total length of 2,000m.
The cave has always been a topic of scientific research. This includes the first survey, but also the measuring of the cave cave climate. Ice caves were the first which were scientifically examined for their climate. Here at Kungur measurement by Professor I.G. Gmelin started in 1733, which is said to be the scientific research on cave climate at all.
The nearby city of Perm is well known to geologists: the Permian period (286 to 245 million years ago) was named after this city. It is the type locale (locus typicus) for Permian rocks.
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