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Saturday, June 20, 2020

The "Obir Dripstone Caves."

About 35 km from my home are the "Dripstone Caves" of the Hoch Obir.
Water permeates the many layers of rock and slowly dissolves minute parts of the predominantly Calcium stone.
When the water has reached the ceiling of the caves, which have existed for some 200 millions of years, the calcium is deposited in either Stalactites, (hanging from the ceiling) or Stalagmites (growing from the bottom).
When these caves were discovered by miners working in this area in search for Led, Zinc and Iron, it took only a short time before somebody had the brilliant idea, to make this cave accessible to tourists via ladders and electrical lighting. (In the beginning, visitors' guides carried oil lamps).
A visitor's tour goes over about 1 km underground. The entire explored area extends to over 5 km.
Well, I was there some years ago and took these pictures. (and many more)


The Area just before the entrance to the caves.


This staircase should give you an idea of the size of this cave.











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