Phong Nha Cave

 

Location: Quảng Bình province Map

 

Description of Phong Nha Cave

Phong Nha Cave is situated in Quảng Bình province in Vietnam. Phong Nha Cave is the second largest underground system in the country after Son Doong Cave. It is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most popular sites in Vietnam. Phong Nha Cave was formed by an underground Son river that carved a cave 7729 meters long with a total length of passages surpassing 44.5 kilometers. Tourists can enter a cave by taking a boat through an underground river deep into limestone caverns. However only 1500 meters are accessible to the public. It costs 80,000 VND (about 3.80 USD) to enter a cave and another 350,000 VND (about 16.80 USD) to rent a boat that can take about 14 people.

 

Duong Văn was the first Vietnamese to describe the Phong Nha Cave as early as 1550. Phong Nha was later depicted in nine urns in the city of Hue. In 1824, the name of the cave was changed to "Dieu Ung Chi than" (Han Tu: 妙 应 之 神) by King Minh Mang. It was also called "than Hien Linh" by kings of the Nguyen Dynasty (Han Tu: 神 显灵).

In the mid-1800s, French priest Léopold Michel Cadière conducted an expedition to explore Phong Nha. Here he discovered ancient inscriptions from the Champa dynasty. In 1924 it was declared by the English explorer "Barton" that the cave was unique and unparalleled among all the caves known to date.

However, the first part of the cave was officially discovered in 1992.

 

Characteristics

Phong Nha Cave, from which the name of the entire system and the park is derived, is famous for its rock formations that have been given names such as the "Lion", the "Fairy Caves", the "Royal Court" and the "Buddha". Phong Nha Cave is 7,729 m long, but tourists can only penetrate up to a distance of 1,500 m and contains several grottoes or chambers, including the Bi Ky Grottoes. Its cave system features underground passages and river caves filled with stalactites and stalagmites. The stalagmites that used to stand at the cave's entrance apparently inspired its name: Phong Nha means "wind and teeth." Phong Nha is famous for its rock formation that bears intriguing names such as the 'Lion', 'Unicorn', 'Kneeling Elephant' and 'Buddha'. After flowing about 19 km underground, the Son River emerges from the mouth of this cave, draining a large area of the limestone mountains around Phong Nha. Phong Nha has been voted one of the most wonderful caves in the world for several reasons: for its longest underground river, for its most beautiful underground lake, for its highest and widest entrance, for its most beautiful and wide dry cave, for its most beautiful sandbank and reef, as well as its most spectacular stalactites, stalagmites and longest water grottoes.