The Biggest cave in Asia. Hwan(환) means change or transform. Sun(선) means Taoist hermit.
6.3km long and deep. We can only see 3.3km cave of total.
Old legend said, a monk went into the cave to cultivate his mind. However, no one saw the monk's out.
Hwanseon Cave (환선굴) is a cave located in
Gangwon province,
South Korea. It is one of the largest limestone caves in Asia, and the biggest in Korea, with 6.2 km of known passages and a total suspected length of 8 km, 1.6 km of which are visited by over 1 million people per year. In 1966 the South Korea government designated this cave and a neighboring cave not open to the public, Gwaneum cave (관음굴), National Monument 178.
[1] Hwanseongul was opened to the public in 1997.
Situated in a rugged
karst range near the city of
Samcheok, the cave's 10 m tall entrance is a grueling 30 to 45 minute uphill hike from the ticket office. Once inside, the temperature varies between 10° and 14°C. The walls spout water from innumerable cracks and seeps, which join to make good-sized streams, waterfalls and ten large pools. Some rooms in the cave are vast, 100 m tall, and bridges have been built across chasms in them.
[2] The usual fanciful names have been given to the various formations, but the high rate of water flow has prevented the building up of many
stalagmites or
stalactites. Flowstones, rimstones, popcorn, pipes and curtains are more abundant.
[3] There are 47 species of wildlife found in the cave, including the lungless Korean clawed salamander
Onychodactylus fischeri, the spider
Allomengea coreana, the
cave cricket Diestrammena japanica, the
millipedes Epanerchodus kimi and
Antrokoreana gracilipes, the moth
Apopestes indica, and a species of
amphipod in the genus
Pseudocrangonyx. Four species are unique to Hwanseon Cave, including the beetle
Kurasawatrechus latior.
[4]
From wikipedia
