Scărișoara Cave
The church hall
The Scărişoara Cave (Romanian Peştera Scărişoara ) is an ice cave in 1082 meters above sea level in Romanian Apuseni Mountains. It is part of the Apuseni Nature Park and includes the most compact block of ice underground in Europe, with a volume of 75,000 square meters and a thickness up to 26 meters. Pollen analyzes date the ice on an age of about 3500 years.
Geographical Location
The Scărişoara cave is located 40 kilometers away from the city Câmpeni. If you come on the road Ştei - Turda, goes in Garda de Sus an exit towards Gârda Seacă from. From there you take the seven -kilometer-long gravel road to the Scărişoara Cave.
Formation
According to scientific findings of the Speleological Institute in Cluj Emil Racoviţă ( Cluj ), the water of the nearby Ocoale Valley gnawed the limestone at the surface of the mountain a million years ago and created the karst landscape. The water penetrated into the earth where it washed cavities in the rock over time. In this way, the current created cavities. During the Ice Age glaciers formed underground. As the ice disappeared in the other caves of the glaciers in Scărişoara could exist under the earth. As the cave is only connected through a single opening to the surface, the ice remains even in the summer months, despite the extremely high temperatures. During the winter, the cold air falls through the gorge down and so enters the cave, in the summer the warm, lighter air stays up. In addition, the block of ice acts as a cooling unit. Here, the icy landscape turns constantly. In the spring melt water passes from the surface into the gorge and turns to ice. Only a small part of it is melting due to summer temperature in the cave. The glacier growing from year to year by a new layer of ice to. At a depth of about 90 meters, the ice disappears. This increases the temperature of the rock. Pollen analyzes have confirmed that the oldest ice of the glacier today is 3500 years old.
Description
The Scărişoara Cave is the biggest tourist attraction of the Apuseni Mountains in north-western Romania. The entrance bay with steep cliffs is 50 meters wide and 48 meters deep. About a steel ladder that is fixed in stone, can be reached via 450 steps to the cave entrance.
The underground ice deposits have a circumference of 75,000 square meters and a thickness up to 26 meters. Your Maximum age has been dated using the pollen analysis at 3500 years. The Scărişoara Cave is only a small portion of a much larger underground system which is spread in this region on several floors. The Austrian speleologist Adolf Schmidl mentioned the Scărişoara Cave for the first time in 1863 and created the first cave map.
The cave is divided into several sectors that have different names. The "Great Hall" (Romanian: Sala Mare) is 109 meters long and 78 meters wide. He makes the actual cave area. Massive ice covers the floor, stalagmites and stalactites of meters-thick ice surrounding the glacier block, forming an underground labyrinth. The " Church " (Romanian: Biserica ) is the room with the most beautiful ice formations. The other rooms are reserved for scientists: " Rezervatia Mica ", " Rezervatia Mare " and " Galeria Coman ".
A small, eyeless endemic beetle is native to the Scărişoara Cave. The French entomologist René Jeannel called him Pholeuon proserpinae glaciale and found that it can not survive outside the cave. In the cave itself, however, he proves to be a survivor. It is based on a smell, its food source are ancient organic residues in the melt water from the ice. In addition, fossilized mountain goat bones were found in 100 feet of water. These were dated by cavers to over 3000 years.
The cave has been declared a natural monument and speleology Reserve.
Legends
To the Scărişoara Cave entwine several legends. According to a legend, once said to have lived in the cave of the dragon Solomat. Each year, he kidnapped a girl, either on New Year's Day or the night before the " girl market in Găină ". He hid it in his ice palace and she was never seen again.
According to another legend were behind a rock formation called La Brazi two water-filled basin. Kneeling down to think of the pelvis down with uncovered head, and they drank of the water by this expressed a desire, then this wish came true, with the proviso that one for a year to anyone with the desire told.