|
UAYCEF - Priest Grotto Expedition, August
2003
www.uaycef.org
The black background that this page is presented
on is like being in the cave with the lights
turned off. There is absolutely no light except
for the light that you carry with you.
If you loose your light or if it fails you
really can't see anything.
These pictures are only visible because of
the flash of the camera, when you are
in the cave you can't see all the detail that
the pictures present. Imagine walking
through your house at night with only a
flashlight, you can see but you can't see
all the details of your home. As a game,
practice 5 minutes with your family with all the
lights in your home turned off on a dark
evening, then use a flashlight to negotiate the
house.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Today
the entrance of Priests Grotto is
kept open by a steel water pipe that
was installed to prevent mud from
closing the entrance. This is
the view from the bottom of the
entrance pipe. It is about 25 feet. |
A
Ukrainian guide seen
crawling into the area
where the Jewish Survivors lived for
344 days without going above ground. |
Sergey
our guide entering one of the
several rooms that contained traces
of human habitation. You can see the
walls of the room are blackened by
smoke from a fire. |
The
ceiling of the cave
is blackened by smoke
from cooking fires. They had meals
twice a day at 7:AM and at 7:PM. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
One of
the living chambers. Notice the
stone wall at the back of the
chamber that
was used to close off the
area. |
A shoe
left behind by
the Jewish Survivors, still
soft because of the
moisture level of 100%
humidity in the cave. |
Lake
Nemo, was the water source for
the survivors it is still as
clean as the day they lived
there. |
Lake
Nemo, the caver
tossing a full water bottle
to a person at the edge
of the lake while collecting
water for three
days underground. |
|
| |
Priests
Grotto in addition to being a refuge for 38
Jewish survivors holds fascinating gypsum
crystals.
The pictures below are deep in the cave, deeper
that the families ever went.
The cave is 77 miles of passages, to get to the
furthest parts of the cave requires you
to traverse some deadly passages.
Here you see one of the most dangerous places in
the cave.
|
| |
|
 |
 |
A
Gypsum Crystal is illuminated
by a flashlight.
They grow at a rate of about
1mm every 200 years. |
Gypsum
Crystals illuminated
by carbide lamps in the
Crystal
Room |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Going
deep into the
cave, these cavers negotiate
one of the toughest sections
of the cave called the
Stone Cells. More than
one and a half miles
underground,
a fall here would be fatal. The
temperature is 52o F, or
11o C. |
Tectonic
movement has
formed breaks in the rock
and as water has flowed
through the cracks it has
left the openings that have
formed the cave. |
The
drop is 30 Feet
into water below this
person, the walls of the cave
are wet and his feet
are covered with soft
mud making this an extreme
challenge; additionally the walls of
the cave are slanted forming a
funnel
that would trap him if he
fell. |
|
| |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Resting
at camp 3 deep in the cave. We
stopped here to eat and rest
after miles of hiking deep
into the cave. |
Gypsum
snow laying loose on the ground. |
A large
deposit of magnesium is
found in this place in the
cave. Magnesium changes the
color of the gypsum
crystals to black. |
|
| |
|
 |
 |
| Tanya
pauses for a few seconds by some
crystal flowers that cling to the
walls. |
Sasha
one of our guides illuminates
some beautiful crystals. |
|
|
|
 |
 |
These
are very unique crystals that grow
four
and a half miles
underground. They are
approximately 1300 years old,
and very
fragile. A cigarette lighter
is placed
in the photograph so you can see the
scale of the crystal |
Gypsum
Snow crystals covers the rocks
here. They are pure white
crystals. This area
of the cave is high and there is
less moisture in the
air and soil. This is about
four miles underground
and has taken us 7 hours to reach. |
|