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| Speleology |  If you want to try something new pay attention to caving and urban speleology. Speleology is the exploration of natural caves. There is a huge amount of caves in the world and many of them are filled with wonderful formations called speleothems. These speleothems are formed when water passes through the rock and pick small pieces of calcite. When water drips through the cave calcite pieces are deposited and forms cave pearls, stalagmites and stalactites. All these create fairytale landscapes deep under the ground.
Potential cavers may choose either to visit show caves or wild caves. There are no guided tours to the wild caves, they are rather dangerous, unlit and unmarked. This kind of caves is more suitable for the experienced cavers than for the beginners. Show caves are usually lit and have marked paths. It’s easy to find guided tours there which guarantee that you will see the most impressive places in the cave.
There are many places in USA where you can try speleology, for example:
1. Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico). There are the most popular caves here. They offer guided and self-guided tours. They are even equipped with an elevator for those who are uncomfortable with climbing down into the cave. Besides many interesting calcite formations there is usually a huge amount of bats in these caves, which leave caves every night and return back only in the morning.
2. Shanghai Tunnels (Portland, OR).These tunnels tell the story of Portland when it was not so beautiful few centuries ago as now. When sea captains came to the city (around 2c centuries ago) they always have a lack of crew members. They paid generously to special people who helped them to find the crew. That people looked for unsuspecting men in taverns, drug them and cast them into the tunnels through trapdoors. Then they sold men to captains. Visitors of Shanghai Tunnels are now shown tunnels, trapdoors and cells, where victims were kept.
3. Mammoth Cave National Park (central Kentucky). It is the longest known cave in the world. It is a home to over 200 species of animals. The largest US underground lake is also here. It is called Lost Sea (it is the second largest in the world). You can get a tour of the four and a half acre lake in glass bottomed boats. Here you can also find crystalline speleothems which are better known as care flowers – extremely fragile and rare work of nature.
If you like something more urban than you can visit tunnels and catacombs which run under many cities. Most famous sites are in Europe especially in Paris and Rome, but there are several interesting underground tours in the USA such as Seattle Underground.
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