The world knew little about this place until about 13 years ago.
Mesmerizing Son Doong cave is actually the largest cave in the world. To reach the cave you would have to go through the dense jungle of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a home to Son Doong cave. The national park was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2003.
Son Doong cave is recorded the largest cave in the world, the cave located in Son Trach Commune, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. It was first found by a local farmer namely Ho Khanh in 1991 but he then forgot the way to come back. The cave recently discovered in 2009 by British cavers, led by Howard Limbert.
The name “Son Doong” means “mountain river cave”. What they found turned out to be the largest cave in the world. It was created by river eroding away the limestone underneath the mountain. Determining its exact age is really hard, but it is believed to be 2-5 million years old.
The cave situated below another cave in Phong Nha – Ke Bang, though its entry passage is very difficult to traverse. The exploration team said they had set foot on just 6.5 kilometers along the cave, as there is a large amount of fast flowing water inside Son Dong. It takes explorers 6 hours of walking through a 10 kilometer long forest path from Truong Son Highway to reach the mouth of Son Doong cave.
Mesmerizing Son Doong cave is not just massive; it’s unlike any other cave in the world.The Son Doong Cave in Vietnam’s Quang Binh Province is said to be 8.5 kilometers long, 200 meters wide and 150 meters tall. The cave was created 2 – 5 million years ago by river water eroding limestone underneath a mountain. Made up of a network of almost 150 individual caves, Son Doong even has its own river, lake and jungle. The vegetation inside the cave is lush. The closer you get to daylight, the larger the greenery. Also, a wide variety wildlife can be seen there, like birds, monkeys and even snakes.
Walking through the world’s largest cave is a privilege granted only to few people on Earth. British tourist Simon Dunne was one of the first people who visited this amazing place, that has been open to public since 2013.
Simon said for Dailymail:
‘The strangest experience of them all was the silence. As they say, silence is deafening and when you’re in the lake section of the cave, which is barren to all things living, standing in complete darkness and silence is an experience I’ll never forget.’