|
Arabic
Bengali
Chinese
English
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese|
WONDERS OF NATURE
Postojna Cave. Nature miracle
The Dinaric Mountains, stretching along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, are a classic region of karst caves and natural phenomena associated with them: surprisingly round, as if drawn with a compass, lakes and failed funnels, bottomless vertical wells and mysterious rivers that suddenly disappear on some section of its valley to reappear two or three kilometers downstream. The very word "karst", meaning a set of processes occurring during the dissolution of rocks, comes from the name of the limestone plateau in the Dinaric mountains. And at the western end of the Karst plateau, next to the picturesque Mount Sovich, on which the ruins of an ancient castle of the XIII century rise, there is one of the largest and most beautiful caves in Europe - Postojna Yama. ("Pit" in Slovenian - a cave.)
The castle on the mountain, by the way, stood for four centuries and would still have stood if in 1689 lightning had not struck its tower, which stored gunpowder reserves. The fortress, blown into the air, was not restored, but instead a new castle was built below, under the mountain, in the center of the small town of Postojna. Now this castle houses the Slovenian Institute for Karst Research. Scientists do not have to go far for objects for research: after all, five hundred meters higher on the mountainside is the entrance to one of the longest and most picturesque underground cavities in the world. Stretching for almost twenty kilometers, a grandiose labyrinth of halls, passages, descents, tunnels and corridors was discovered and explored by scientists in the middle of the last century. Now the cave has become a popular destination for travelers from all over Europe. Postojna is well equipped to receive tourists. The narrow-gauge railway, seven kilometers long, allows visitors to look into the remote corners of the underworld without overcoming the difficulties that the first explorers of the cave faced. You just need to stock up on warm clothes (after all, the temperature in the halls of Postojna in winter and summer is eight degrees Celsius), as well as put on a waterproof raincoat to hide from the underground drop. Many stone masterpieces can be seen in the underground halls. Among them is a large stalagmite Cypress, which really looks like a slender tree, a Boy with a Thumb sculpted by nature, peeking out from behind a stone column, an openwork stalactite drapery woven from the finest thread-like streaks. Illuminated from within, it shimmers with all sorts of shades of red, from pink to bright scarlet. The walls of the halls seem to be cast from metal, then made of ivory, faded from the dust covering it. Huge columns of the most intricate shapes prop up the vaults, decorated with multi-ton stone "icicles". Sometimes a whole palisade of columns fills the space of the hall, and the train rides as if in a stone forest. In some places, water drips from the ceiling, bringing with it the lime dissolved in it. Stalagmites rise from the floor of the cave. It will take them many millennia to meet the stalactites hanging from above: after all, they grow very slowly - one millimeter per hundred years! But now the narrow-gauge railway dives into a dark tunnel and leaves it already at the edge of a steep cliff. In a deep gorge, the stormy river Pivka rustles underfoot. Not far from here, she leaves the surface underground and, having run nine kilometers through the cave, comes out into the world already under the name of Unity. At the underground lake the train makes a stop. Here you can see unique amphibians living only in Dinaric caves - Proteus. Proteus spends his whole life underground in darkness and therefore is blind. Blind in the caves are also spiders and scorpions, and even fish living in underground lakes. A traveler who wants to see more can leave the train and walk along the concrete path, fenced with railings. At first, it rises steeply to the forty-five-meter blocky heap of the Big Mountain. (This underground country also has its own mountains!) Around ten-meter sintered columns rise, and between them young stalagmite shoots rise from the floor, like growing stone grass. Then, along the Russian bridge, thrown over a thirty-meter crevice, the path takes the traveler to the fantastic halls of the Beautiful Pit. From there, the trail descends in a gentle serpentine to a five-hundred-meter artificial tunnel connecting Postojna with the Cherna and Pivka caves. After walking along a long balcony carved into the rock along the river Pivka murmuring over the stones, the tourist finds himself at the bottom of the majestic natural mine-failure Pivskaya Yama. From here, a forty-meter ascent along an asphalt path finally leads to the surface, five kilometers from the entrance to the cave. What is most striking in the Postoynaya Yama is the gigantic size of the halls and galleries. For example, the Great Hall, adapted for concerts, can accommodate up to ten thousand spectators! And the acoustics are excellent. Even a small chamber orchestra sounds here with the power of an unprecedented organ. It is difficult even to compare a Slovenian cave with Russian or Ukrainian underground cavities. The famous Kizil-Koba - the Red Cave in the Crimea, with all its multi-hundred-meter galleries, grottoes and waterfalls, could fit in one or two halls of Postoynaya Yama. There are no words, many of our caves in the Urals, Siberia and the Caucasus are not inferior to her in beauty. But their sizes are incomparable. In Europe, the underground miracle of Slovenia can only be compared with the recently discovered (in 1971) Frasassi cave system in Italy. Its main cave, the Grotta Grande del Vento ("Great Cave of the Winds"), which stretches for 13 kilometers, is no less impressive than Postojna, especially the unique Sala delle Candeline ("Hall of Candles"), where thousands of cream-colored stalactites hang from the ceiling. An unusual, slightly creepy impression is made by the Grotta delle Nottole ("Bat Cave"), located next to the Cave of the Winds, where tens of thousands of these tiny nocturnal mammals hang upside down on the vaults. In the evening, when the sun sets, a real pandemonium begins at the entrance to this cave. In a continuous stream, bats fly out to hunt at night from the black throat of the underground cavity, and for an hour or even longer, a piercing squeak and rustle of thousands of wings are heard in the air. However, the underground palaces of the Apennine mountains are not yet so well equipped to receive tourists. And in Slovenia, Postojna Pit is far from the only karst pearl. Not far from it is another miracle of nature - the grandiose ponor mine Shkocyan. Ponor (a well washed with water in soluble rocks) is so large that it was possible to lay a spiral road leading to its bottom along the inclined walls of this karst funnel. From here, a 130-meter inclined tunnel leads to the first system of halls, which is adorned by the majestic Paradise Hall. But the main highlight of Shkocyan is the Muller Hall. In its center, fenced with a concrete parapet, a ninety-meter abyss gapes, at the bottom of which an underground stream roars and rages - the Notranska river. Disappearing underground near Shkocyan, this stream passes underground for 20 kilometers and comes to light near the Adriatic coast in the form of a powerful source of Timavo. In the steep walls of the underground abyss of Škocian, balconies are arranged, connected by stairs, and visitors to the cave can descend to the next level, fifty meters below the first. There are also many beautiful halls and passages here, one of which ends at the underground Dead Lake. Behind it, the unexplored impassable continuations of the Shkocyan begin, the exploration of which is still ahead. Having crossed the abyss along the Khankeev bridge, hanging over the abyss, you can gradually go down to the river, pass by the large Charon Lake and go out into the Long and High Hall - Shmidlov Dvoran. From it, the tourist gets to the bottom of the Big failed funnel, from where it is already easy to rise to the surface. There is, perhaps, no other place in the world where a traveler not armed with special equipment can climb underground passages to a depth of two hundred meters! Nevertheless, Postojna Yama remains the most attractive cave in Slovenia. Yielding to Shkocyan in depth, it captivates the viewer with the fabulous beauty and variety of its halls, their grandiose sizes. Attracts tourists and the opportunity to make a many-kilometer trip through the underground world in an open narrow-gauge trailer. And going on a trip to the Adriatic, you should pay attention not only to the picturesque islands of the Dalmatian coast or the ancient walls of Dubrovnik and Split. The impression of this corner of Southern Europe will be incomplete if you do not see the pearl of the Dinaric Karst - Postojna Cave. Author: B.Wagner
Artificial leather for touch emulation
15.04.2024 Petgugu Global cat litter
15.04.2024 The attractiveness of caring men
14.04.2024
▪ Stereo image without glasses ▪ Electric train with a speed of 369 km/h ▪ Fundamentally new computer architecture ▪ 56Gbps In-System Interface Receiver
▪ site section Electrical work. Article selection ▪ article A phial of bliss to drink. Popular expression ▪ article Where is it forbidden to stroke children on the head? Detailed answer ▪ article ticket clerk. Job description ▪ article Devices with USB. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering ▪ article Another experience with a ladle. physical experiment
Home page | Library | Articles | Website map | Site Reviews
www.diagram.com.ua |
We recommend interesting articles Section 
See other articles Section 
Latest news of science and technology, new electronics:
All languages of this page