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WONDERS OF NATURE
Carlsbad Caverns. Nature miracle
In the north of the Mexican Chihuahua Desert, already in the United States, the low mountains of Guadalupe stretch along the left bank of the Rio Grande. The slopes of the limestone mountain range, which does not reach even two thousand meters, are cut by many gorges, funnels and caves. The rivers and streams that formed them in ancient times have now gone into the depths, leaving the labyrinths carved by them at the complete disposal of lovers of underground wonders. In the state of New Mexico, cavers have discovered more than eighty karst cavities, but the main one is the grandiose system of Carlsbad caves, which stretches for 133 kilometers in the depths of the Guadalupe Ridge. Although it is inferior in length to the largest Mammoth Cave in Kentucky on Earth, the Carlsbad tunnels and passages descend to a depth of 477 meters - deeper than all US caves.
Only in the Pyrenees, in the Dinaric Mountains of Slovenia, in the Crimea and the Caucasus, deeper karst cavities have been explored. And the largest of the sixty halls of the Carlsbad caves - the famous Big Room ("Great Hall") is literally amazing with its incredible size. This grandiose underground palace is 540 meters long, 330 meters wide and 77 meters high and is considered to be the world's largest cave hall. An extended system of underground passages and grottoes was formed here in the thickness of a fossil coral reef that arose 250 million years ago in a warm coastal bay of the Mesozoic Sea. Later, already in the Cenozoic era, rains and streams of melt water began to corrode the reef limestone, forming over millions of years a giant intricacies of underground tunnels, wells, halls and grottoes, which now amaze tourists and scientists who have visited the cave with their beauty. Five kilometers of illuminated concrete paths have now been laid through the halls and passages of the Carlsbad Caverns. More trained and experienced lovers of underground excursions can go another thirty kilometers along hard-to-reach and therefore less traveled corridors and grottoes. The main entrance to the caves is followed by the 250-meter Main Corridor, leading the tourist to the "Hall of the Green Lake", in the middle of which there is a miniature pond with emerald water. Here the gaze of the traveler sees the main miracle of the Carlsbad Caves - unique stalactites and stalagmites, the elegance and variety of which have no equal in the world. Hanging from above, stalactites sometimes meet with stalagmites growing towards them, forming picturesque sculptures resembling either columns, or whole curtains, or fantastic statues. One of the most bizarre figures in the "Hall of the Green Lake" is called the Statue with a Veil. Further, the tourist enters the luxurious "Queen's Chambers", decorated with stone curtains and draperies, which can easily compete with the silks and velvets of Versailles. Skillful lighting further enhances the effect of a breathtaking spectacle: openwork stalactite curtains seem to flutter in the wind, pierced by gentle rays of all colors of the rainbow. The next hall - "Temple of the Sun" - amazes with its drip-stained covers, colored with pastel shades of yellow, pink and blue. The fantasy of nature here is truly inexhaustible: in each hall you meet new fabulous figures or obelisks, frozen waterfalls and stone cascades. Many sculptures have been given proud or playful names. Such, for example, are "Bashful-Elephant" ("Shameful Elephant"), reminiscent of this giant of African forests, shyly turned its back to the aisle, or "Rock of Edges" ("Century Rock"), which is a mighty stalagmite, towering in the middle of a carved grotto in splendid isolation. And at the entrance to the "Hall of the Giants" are guarded by three huge stalagmites with rounded tops, similar to the helmets of medieval warriors. The hall of the Royal Palace amazes with the luxury and sophistication of stone decorations, where cascades of stalactites glowing in the beams of spotlights seem to flow from the ceiling. And the majestic "Big Room" ("Big Room"), in addition to its incredible size, is also famous for its surprisingly fragile and delicate stalactite icicles, so thin that if you hit them with a knife handle, a melodic ringing is heard. By the way, no figures give an idea of the scale of this truly endless underground cavity. Only after seeing the "Big Room" with his own eyes, the stunned tourist understands that this is really possible. After all, fourteen football fields could freely fit under its arches! Carlsbad caves were inhabited long before the appearance of man. For many centuries it served as a haven for millions of bats. These tiny creatures, weighing no more than twenty grams, fly south for the winter, to sultry Mexico, and in April they return back and again inhabit the cool halls of the cave. In the evening, when the baby bats fly out to hunt, the entrance to the caves seems to be covered with brown smoke, bats fly out of it in such a thick stream. For more than an hour, an oscillating living stream flows from the dark cave mouth, and not a single animal will ever collide with another - the ultrasonic dowsing system created for them by nature is so sensitive and perfect. True, people watching the flight of bats hear only the soft rustling of wings: the frequency of sounds emitted by mice is inaccessible to our ears. Back in 1930, Carlsbad Caverns was inhabited by about ten million bats, but now there are just over a million left. Apparently, pesticides, with which the fields and gardens at the foot of the ridge are being cultivated with might and main, have done their dirty work. The fauna of the surroundings of the cave system includes not only bats. On the slopes of the mountains of Guadalupe, among the cacti, yucca and walnut trees common here, amusing kangaroo rats and other rodents, porcupines and big-eared hares, skunks and foxes live. And in spring, multi-colored hummingbirds, like butterflies, curl over flowering prickly pears. The Chihuahua desert is not at all lifeless, and the local Apache Indians, who hunted in its expanses for centuries, are well aware of this. Their ability to survive in conditions of lack of moisture and scarce fishing resources causes great respect for this tribe of desert trackers. But the tourists who have been here are especially grateful to that observant Apache who once followed the flight of bats at dawn and, having gone in search of a place where their millionth stream disappeared, discovered the most beautiful underground kingdom, the world of stalactites and petrified waterfalls - Carlsbad caves. Author: B.Wagner
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