Aven Armand

Aven Armand (French Aven, German karst cave ) is the name of a cave on the Causse Mejean near the town Meyrueis in Lozere in France. It bears the name of its discoverer Louis Armand, a blacksmith from the hamlet of Le Rozier, who joined for the first time on September 19, 1897 in the cave.

The main hall is 110 m long and 60 m wide, with an average height of 45 m, and in him there is a forest of more than 400 stalagmites. Due to the size of the hall due to this have a special shape, it is called Tellerstapelstalagmiten, the largest up to 30 m high.

On June 11, 1927 l' Aven Armand was opened for tourists. The development took a long time and was very complicated, because the cave is very deep below the plateau. With a 208 m long artificial tunnel leads with a funicular railway to the main hall.

The famous cave explorer Édouard Alfred Martel described the cave as a dream of the Arabian Nights. He was the leader of the first research expedition into the cave at the Armand as the discoverer had the privilege of first descend into the cave. He was also the driving force in the development, since he advised Armand to purchase and expansion of the cavity, so as to give him a profitable business. Martel himself had already done this successfully with his own show cave.