ShowCaveBlog

Oman’s ministry of tourism is working on the plan to make Majlis al Jinn the second show cave of the country. This cave is of some fame as it was featured two years ago in National Geographic Magazine. It is one of the largest cave chambers in the world, although it not the second largest as the ministry states. Concerning floor surface area it is the 8th largest with 58,000m².

This cave is simply a single huge chamber, with a partly collapse of the roof. Sun shines into the huge chamber, and cavers enter the cavern by climbing down the 150m from the rim to the floor below. Cavers do this by abseiling, and climb back up in a technique called single rope technique (SRT), where special devices are used to climb up the rope.
World’s second-largest cave to boost tourism – The National Newspaper

This is an important event for show caves: show cave management and development is a main issue of nature conservation. Obviously, as the development of a show cave has great impact on the cave.

This conference is organized by the Nature Conservancy of the U.S.A.. It takes place at Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, this week. Attendants are from  the U.S.A., Mexico, Dominican Republic, and China.

The Australian show mine Wheal Hughes Copper Mine is looking for engine drivers for their underground mine tours, also nearby Moonta National Trust Tourist Train, which seems to be managed by almost the same people.

For more info ring Ned Knight 0402 119 483.
 Engine drivers and miners needed

No, this has nothing to do with terrorism. It has to do with archaeology or history. However, as a result of the discovery, the cave was closed last weekend and the explosives removed.

The story started last week with the annual cave restoration and cleaning project. Workers were checking the electric light system, when they discovered explosives, obviously several decades old, last Thursday. As we know from movies, old dynamite tends to become dangerous, as the nitro glycerine starts to sweat out of the bars and they become unstable. Because of this danger, the cave was immediatly evacuated, and the National Park Service’s regional expert in abandoned explosives, Dave Karplus, called in to assess the situation. Fortunately he works in Sequoia Kings Canyon. The cave remained closed for the weekend, until all explovies were removed completely.
It seems the dynamite originates from the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed paths in the cave. They drilled three holes in the cave wall and equipped them with some kind of explosives to enlarge the narrow parts for the visitor trail. However, the amount of explosives was very small, as they only removed small pieces of rock to creat a smooth and almost natural look for the future show cave. The three unused charges were detonated, and so the cave is save again.

Such discoveries are rare but possible, as miners sometimes left, because of sickness or death, without removing their properties. The discoveries of dynamite cases happen now and then. Finders are advised to leave them untouched, stay away and call the officials. However, explosives in caves are extremely uncommon.

The explosives have not been discovered before, simply because they were located at a remote, narrow and never visited corner of the cave. The current work, the try to create a cave lighting system efficient enough to be powered by a solar panel, required work in several such places.

 Dynamite found in Sequoia Park cave | visaliatimesdelta.com | Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

The cave Altınbeşik Mağarası is located north of Manavgat, close to the famous tourist area between Antalya and Alanya, on the southern coast of Turkey. The cave is of some size and rather interesting, with impressive speleothems. The gorge where the cave ends is used for white water adventures. Many years ago there seems to have been an effort to open the cave to tourists. A (pretty poor) road was built to the entrance. But after some signs were erected in the nearby village, it seems the cave was forgotten. Now several projects were started to contine development, but it was not published which projects. However, the cave still lacks a development plan, so it will take several years until it will be opened. We will post it, if we hear of further developments.

• Altinbesik cave a hidden beauty – Turkish Daily News May 08, 2008

The Bell Witch Cave is located in Adams, Tennessee, U.S.A., about 40km east of Clarksville on state Highway 76. The cave is not very spectacular, it is famous primarily for its ghost, the Bell Whitch. The legend is so old, that the place was now included on the National Register of Historic Places.