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so after several increasingly insane messages to Alex at ungodly hours of the night, I caved (haha), posted about my new obsession, and now I have once again been enabled by @tamale104, so youāre gonna hear about the latest obsession I gained from research for my fic: The SĘ”n ÄoĆ²ng Cave.
long, LONG post below the cut
Hang SĘ”n ÄoĆ²ng, translated from Vietnamese as eitherĀ ācave of the mountain riverā orĀ ācave of mountains behind ÄoĆ²ng (village)ā is a cave in the Phong Nha-Kįŗ» BĆ ng National Park in Vietnam, near the Laos-Vietnam border. Itās between 2 to 5 million years old, and is a solutional cave, which means it was formed by water dissolving soluble limestone. The cave has an internal fast-flowing river called Rao Thuong, and itās this river that carved out the cave over millions of years.
The cave was discovered in 1991 by a local man named Hį» Khanh, who was, at the time, a logger looking for agarwood, a valuable timber. However, the steep descent into the cave (a 200 ft drop!), as well as the sound of roaring water coming from within discouraged him from entering. Later, in 2009, a group of cavers from the British Cave Research Association were conducting a survey of the national park and explored the cave, giving it international fame.
The main passage of the cave is the largest in the word by volume, big enough that a Boeing 747 plane could fly through with ease without having to fear for its wings. Itās 200 meters (660 ft) high and 150 meters (490 ft) wide. The cave also contains some of the worldās largest stalagmites (those are the ones that come from the floor), such as the 200 ft tall Hand of Dog stalagmite.
The story behind that weird name, in a quote from one of the first people to explore the cave, Howard Limbert: āA woman on our original expedition asked if she could name it. She shouted āThe Hand of God,ā and the lad who wrote it down wrote āHand of Dogā instead. We didnāt know it was going to be famous, so some names are a bit weird.ā
The caveās size is because of two factors, the river running through it, and the fault line it sits on.
My favorite thing about this cave are the two dolines, places in the cave where the ceiling has collapsed. The first doline, named Watch Out for Dinosaurs, is a small hole in the ceiling that lets in mesmerizing beams of sunlight. Small ferns grow on the rocks where the sunlight touches.Ā
(image taken from the cave tour companyās website, Oxalis Adventures. The picture is taken with artificial lighting to brighten the surroundings. The second picture is from the CNBC article linked in my sources list. itās done with minimal artificial lighting.)
The cave is so big that it has its own weather system. The sunlight from the dolines heats the water from the river, forming clouds inside the cave that give moisture, allowing plants to grow on the rocks.
So after the first doline, you pass through a chamber whose walls are made entirely of fossils, making the rock white, and then through the caveās biggest chamber, the one that a 747 could fly through without its wings being in any danger.Ā
Then, you get to the second doline and my absolute favorite part of the cave: the Garden of Edam. The second doline is large enough that it allows enough sunlight for a jungle to grow 820 feet below the ground.Ā
(picture of the aerial view was taken from the CNBC article. second picture is taken from the wikipedia article.)
(it looks so pretty at night, I wanna live there.)
In the caveās jungle, trees grow as big as 150 feet tall, and species of monkeys, snakes, at at least one type of eagle owl live there. There are also at least two types of flightless birds running around there.Ā
There are also the cave bugs and fish that live deeper in the cave, far far past the dolines but Iām not talking about them bc theyāre creepy and I hate creepy crawlies. Just know the fishās skin is white/translucent and the creepy crawlies have no eyes because evolution.
this cave also features cave pearls the size of baseballs, which is highly unusual. Pic also describes them.
During rainy season, a lake nearly 2000 ft wide fills up the cave. Itās usually gone by June.
The cave is gorgeous and I have an absolute obsession with it, and if youāre interested in learning more than the brief (ish) overview I gave, check out my sources, listed below!!
-Ā this cool article from cnbc that has gorgeous pictures of the journey to and into the cave
-Ā the wikipedia articleĀ that also has some really nice pictures of the cave
-Ā this national geographic 360 degree tour thing of the cave was my biggest source of info. you have to click the screen to start and then the sidebars teach you how to navigate and stuff and also give cool facts. Works better on desktop or tablet but itās SO COOL to see and I highly recommend it. The whole thing took me around 45 mins to get through but I was going back and forth and writing things and taking my sweet time so Iād estimate itād take around 20 mins normally.
The most terrifying (yet) episode of The Magnus Archives, Lost Johns' Cave, is about this legend of two brothers, the Johns, who got lost in the cave and couldn't find their way out.
The poor man who died in the Nutty Putty Cave, in 2009. His name was John Jones. His brother, Josh Jones, was with him too (fortunately he survived).
Did they name the episode Lost John's Cave as an homage to his memory?
Idk maybe everyone else already figured it out but I couldn't find anything about it
