To see this natural ice miracle, people come to the Urals from different parts of not only our country, but the whole world. The largest Russian cave, equipped for visiting, is known since ancient times, but tours of it have been conducted since 1914. Most of it is hidden from the eyes of tourists, so as not to disturb the ecosystem.
Ural business card
It has long been recognized as a visiting card of the Urals Kungur ice cave. Where is this unique natural wonder located? It is located in the Kungur district of the Perm Territory, at the very base of the Ice Mountain.
There are several stories related to the local attraction. They say that the Cossack chieftain Ermak wintered in the cave before his trip to Siberia. In addition, the crosses found in the grottoes and even a small crypt indicate that the Old Believers once lived here.
The Kungur Ice Cave is a huge maze that spans nearly six thousand kilometers, with spacious halls decorated with ice crystals.
Cave exploration
If you do not take into account the legend of Ermak, then scientists still can not say for sure who discovered the amazing miracle of nature. It is known that in 1703, the famous researcher S. Remezov, after visiting Kungur, made a detailed plan of the grottoes. However, there were a lot of inaccuracies on it, which academician I. Lepekhin, who examined a small part of the cave, tried to correct after 67 years.
In 1879, an archaeological expedition led by I. Polyakov worked inside the labyrinths, and in Soviet times, professor at Perm University G. Maksimovich even published a work in which he examined in detail the cave halls and various types of ice covering the grottoes. To this day, research is being conducted and scientific articles are published on the current state of the facility.
Guarded Landmark
Kungur ice cave is the oldest in the world. In the state-protected natural monument there are about 48 grottoes and about 70 lakes located underground. According to scientists, the age of the Ural sights reaches twelve thousand years. It was then that a global catastrophe led to the extinction of many animals on Earth.
Kungur ice cave: work schedule
It is best to come here from February to April, when cave stalactites and stalagmites reach incredible sizes. For tourists, a kilometer route has been laid, and the duration of the journey through the magical halls of frozen music from ice is an hour and a half.
Group tours are held daily, seven days a week. Starting from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., all visitors are waited by the Kungur Ice Cave, the prices for visiting which have increased since the new year and start at 300 and 600 rubles for children and adults tickets. For an individual tour of the grottoes will have to fork out for 1, 500 rubles.
Ice palace
Everyone who visits the amazing halls of the cave for the first time feels like fairy-tale heroes who suddenly find themselves in the magical world of the Snow Queen. Admired by the beauty of the interior, adults turn into small children and with bated breath go around the natural palace.
Annually, about 100 thousand people visit the Ural landmark. Tours are conducted along two main routes, and tourists note that it is best to visit both. Each group is accompanied by a guide that tells about interesting stories related to the cave and tells about the main grottoes.
Surprisingly, the Kungur ice cave is still growing to this day, in which it is always cold. In some grottoes, the temperature drops to minus thirty degrees than the merchants who used to store meat here used it before.
Routes and excursions
The Big Ring is the main route laid along concreted paths convenient for visitors and well-lit. The most popular grottoes of the Kungur cave will not be left without attention.
But rarely visited halls, barely affected by civilization and poorly studied, make up the Small Ring. Difficult walks along undeveloped paths are not popular among older people, but are loved by young people. Often, at the request of tourists, they are taken to the grottoes, lit only by candle lights that add mystery. An interesting route that will not leave anyone indifferent goes through the cleanest underground lakes.
Another innovation that visitors can take advantage of is to sign up for thematic tours with a laser show ending the program. A stunning sight, in which ice icicles are colored in different colors, shimmering and blinking lights, will remain in memory for a long time.
New Services
The Kungur ice cave, the schedule of excursions of which is incredibly convenient for all visitors, introduces new services - they will help lovers to organize a romantic date and even register a marriage in one of the ice halls.
For tourists who want to visit not only the cave, but also stay for a few days to see the ancient city of Kungur and its museum exhibits, inexpensive hotels located at the very base of the Ice Mountain offer their services.
Diamond grotto
What awaits visitors inside the fairy kingdom? Consider which objects of the Kungur ice cave will appear before visitors. It is simply unrealistic to talk about all the grottoes, so we will dwell on the most interesting ones.
The first grotto, which is meaningfully called Diamond, shimmers in the rays of searchlights, like the cave of Ali Baba. The snow crystals that cover the walls and the arch of the hall are lit with cheerful lights, and the hacked passage into the next grotto is covered with ice.
Polar grotto
The Polar Hall of the Kungursky Cave once long ago formed a single whole with the Diamond. Now the admirable spacious cave is famous for the largest accumulation of calcareous growths on the ceiling and the bottom of the grotto, forming an incredible beauty of formation. Here fantastically beautiful stalactites and stalagmites of various shapes intertwined, creating original fairy-tale compositions.
And in the niche of the Polar Grotto is hidden a column consisting of a monolith of ice and resembling a frozen waterfall.
Dante's Grottoes and Crypt
The journey through the ice kingdom continues, and before the eyes of the amazed visitors, a picturesque view of the Dante's Grotto, so named for the stone randomness depicting the picture of hell described by the poet, opens up.
After it begins the Crypt, from which the forks of the Big and Small Route go. The name of the cave comes from a small house built of stones here, which was mentioned by many research expeditions. Later, the shelter was destroyed, but the name remained.
Cross Grotto
Next to the Crypt is a new hall in which they found an altar and icons left over from the Old Believers. Scientists are sure that hermits were hiding from the authorities' persecution here.
Pompeii ruins
Grotto The ruins of Pompeii are a cave full of chaotic piling of stone blocks, as if remaining after an ancient city destroyed by the eruption of a volcano.
In the center of the disorder, arranged by nature itself, is a sculpture illuminated by cave workers, the outlines of which resemble a turtle and a crocodile.
Seabed and Sculptural
Both children and adults will enjoy the following grottoes of the Kungur ice cave - the Seabed and the Sculptural. In the first, the overgrown gypsum formations, in which the figures of the inhabitants of the sea day are guessed, will strike the imagination. And in the center of the second tourists is met by the Frog Princess made of stone.
Meteor grotto
The meteor grotto is known according to legend, which says that in the complete darkness of this cave, a person with an unclean conscience will see the outline of the lame Bright Caver, who remained here forever after the betrayal of a friend.
The huge spotlight goes out for several minutes, plunging all visitors into absolute darkness.
Coral grotto
Coral cave will be remembered by fans of horror films, because it guesses the miraculous profile of Count Dracula. And on a bright red background, a bizarre silhouette of a huge rhino without a tail, carved for many centuries by nature itself, appears.
