23 02/2017

Criva cave or „Emil Racoviţă cave”

The cave was founded in 1959. During the explosive works in order to enlarge the gypsum quarry, from the region, it was founded a cave mouth from which flowed a big quantity of water. As the consequence the quarry was flooded, thus the excavation works being stopped, but were opened   the cavities of the cave and after the partial drying there were initiated the research studies. Thus it was discovered one from the biggest cave from the world which was formed from rocks and gypsum. The native people called it  Cinderella.

In the karst gaps there are over 20 lakes, the biggest of them are Dacians lake, Green lake, lake a sip of water, Blue lake, Dinosaurs lake, Nautilus lake which were called like this according to the culture, imagination and passion of the speleologists.  The hydro - chemical analysis showed that the waters from the lakes have a rich content of mineral salts which have a curative effect on the human body.  A curiosity not enough explained about the cave is that each underground halls and gallery is padded with fine argil of different nuances of colors, due to the aleatory mineralization: green, blue, red, black, white… The amateur speleologists made strange figures from argil on particular ungrounded roads which serve as ingenious indicators to different halls and interesting labyrinths for visits. The cave which was named so in the honor of the Moldovan and Romanian well-known scientist, explorer and speleologist Emil Racovita is studied and mapped on a length of about 91 km of galleries and labyrinths which are storeyed in 3-4 levels which become larger in some places and forming big halls.  The100 m. Hall, Waiting hall and  the Synod which have length of 60 m and about  30 m width and the height of about 11 m. The ceilings are supported by impressive columns.

The majority of halls have the ceiling vaulted in the gothic style with the height of about 11meters. The width of the tunnels is of 30-40m and the length varies between 60 and 100m. In the waiting hall there are 11 columns which support the ceiling and one of them is washed at the base and it does not reach the ground with about 1 meter. In the galleries there are some wells. The majority of the ceilings and walls are like mosaic, due to the formations which appear after the crystallization of gypsum.  

In the case the walls and the ceilings from the cave which were formed within the time are illuminated, you will be amazed by the shine of the specter of crystals. Some stars continue to shine even after the light is turn off. 

Cinderella cave from Criva can be used for tourism, because it occupies the third place in the Europe according to its length and grandiosity and the seventh place in the world through the caves from gypsum.