ShowCaveBlog

Image: the artist at work: a Guanche drawing the exceptional geometric patterns. This is not the real cave but the model in the Museo Canario in Las Palmas.

The Cueva Pintada is not Altamira, it is just a small, mostly artificial cave in volcanic tufa, in which the indegnious inhabitants of Gran Canaria, the Guanche, painted enigmatic geometric patterns. Nevertheless they are breathtaking and absolutely unique. After the Spaniards conquered the islands, the native population was either killed or assimilated. The cultural remains were not valued, cave houses were used for goats. Later this cave was opened to the public. But fortunately it was then closed. Thats not really nice for tourists, but at least it protected the site.

Now, after 24 years, the painted cave is reopened. The whole area, with the excavation of a whole village, was restored and integrated into a museum. The cave is now also part of the museum. It is possible to see the cave through glass from the museum, but not to enter.

Inauguration of the museum was on Wednesday 26-JUL-2006.

Cueva Pintada

Ape Cave are some segments of a lava tube at the slopes of Mt. St. Helens, in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This caves may be visited on self guided tours. But at the moment a visit is not possible. On Monday 24-JUL-2006 a fire broke out and spread up towards the cave. Before travelling in the area, have a look at the status of Mount St. Helens roads.

The Iran plans to construct a new cave museum, which will be located inside two caves, Huto and Kamarband Caves, which are about 100m apart. This two small caves are probably the most important archeologic caves in the Iran. There are three main reasons to choose this location: the importance of the location, the fact that it is already completely excavated, and the nice landscape around, with the sea to one side.

The reason for this museums seems to be the hope to draw tourists into the Iran. At the same time caves are explored for development or already developed. It seems all those tourist attractions are mainly for inland tourism, but foreign tourism would obviously be appreciated too.

Huto and Kamarband Cave

St Michael’s Cave is a nice show cave located on Gibraltar, inside the famous rock where apes live outside. It has one huge chamber, which is developed as a sort of concert hall.

On Friday 9th September, as part of the National Week celebrations, Marillion singer Steve Hogarth will be performing in the cave. Steve Hogarth, better known as “H”, is the lead singer of Marillion since 1989. But it will not be a Marillion concert, Hogart will perform solo. It will be a sort of unplugged concert, named “H Natural”, as Hogart will be accompanied only by a piano.

The concert is organized by the Ministry of Culture, Word of Mouth Concerts, and Gibtelecom. They hope it will be a success and be followed by a Marillion concert next year.

‘H’ in the cave as part of National Week

Image: engraving by August Seyffer (9.8.1774-14.8.1845).

The small cave in Wimsen, in the Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Jura) in south Germany, is the only river cave in Germany which is a show cave. The cave is toured by a wooden boat. The visitors board the boat at the entrance and the guide pulls the boat along ropes through the only 50m long cave.

On 01-JUN-2006 the boat has capsized. 16 visitors from Germany and Austria had to swim for five minutes through the cold water, until they were rescued by a second boat. The water is only 8° Celsius. One elderly lady from northern Germany was treated for hypothermia.

Although the accident was rather harmless, the police are investigating the reason for the accident. It seems the boat capsized when the boatman tried to turn around at the end of the cave. Several valuables, like cell phones and cameras, were lost in the water or destroyed.

Show Caves of Germany: Friedrichshöhle – Wimsener Höhle

In October 2006 at the Einhornhöhle (Unicorn Cave) in the Harz in northern Germany, for one weekend the Neandertals will be revived. First discovered 300km to the east, in the Neanderthal (valley of the Neander river), this early relative of us humans is found all over Europe. One site with remains is the Harz, a mountain region with many caves.

Neandertaler im Harz (in German)