Aven Armand

Beneath the limestone plateau of the Causse Méjean, a narrow natural shaft drops into a single vast hall filled with a forest of more than 400 stalagmites. The Aven Armand's main chamber lies around 100 metres below the surface and measures about 110 metres long, 60 metres wide and some 45 metres high on average. Among its columns stands a stalagmite about 30 metres tall, one of the highest known in Europe. The shapes are endlessly varied: draperies like jellyfish, organ pipes, slender needles and columns built up like stacks of plates, each formed by the height from which water falls, the speed of the drip and the chemistry of the water.

The stalactites overhead are small by comparison. Water passes quickly through the ceiling of the hall and leaves little calcite behind, so most of the deposit builds up on the floor instead, which explains why the chamber is dominated by growths rising from below. The cave opens into Jurassic limestone at an altitude of about 970 metres, and its total vertical range reaches 197 metres.

The aven takes its name from Louis Armand, a blacksmith from Le Rozier who first descended the shaft on 19 September 1897 together with the explorer Édouard-Alfred Martel and Armand Viré. On 11 June 1927 the cave was opened to visitors after a gently sloping tunnel 208 metres long was cut to reach the hall, sparing the climb down the original pit. Since 1963 a funicular railway has carried visitors down to the main chamber. The site was protected as a classified natural site in 1941, and lies within the Cévennes National Park in the department of Lozère, in the commune of Hures-la-Parade between Meyrueis and Sainte-Enimie.

Getting there

The cave lies on the D996 road across the Causse Méjean between Meyrueis and Sainte-Enimie. Millau is about 26 km away. Montpellier–Méditerranée Airport (MPL) is about 87 km away; Rodez–Aveyron Airport (RDZ) is somewhat closer, at roughly 73 km.