Manjanggul and Gimnyeonggul Lava Tubes — lava tube
강형원 · CC BY 4.0

Manjanggul and Gimnyeonggul Lava Tubes

  • 2 min read
  • 33.528° N 126.770° E

Interesting facts

  • About 30,000 common bent-wing bats roost near the cave's second entrance, the largest bat colony confirmed anywhere in South Korea.
  • The cave was first explored in 1946 by Bu Jong-hyu, a teacher at the Gimnyeong primary school, who led his pupils inside, measured it and gave it its name.
  • Manjang, written with characters meaning ten thousand jang, an old length unit, is a Korean expression for something immeasurably long or deep.
  • Counting its side branches, the whole Manjanggul system adds up to more than 13 km of passages, and the main tube alone reaches about 23 m wide in places.
  • Gimnyeonggul is floored with shell sand blown in from the nearby beach, so its basalt walls carry limestone formations, a rare mix for a lava cave.
  • Gimnyeonggul is also called Snake Cave: according to legend, a giant serpent there demanded a maiden every year until a magistrate killed it in 1515.
  • A memorial at the entrance of Gimnyeonggul honours the official who, in the legend, slew the serpent and freed the village from its yearly tribute.
  • The lava that carved the tubes poured from Geomunoreum, a 456 m volcanic cone, and ran about 13 km north-north-east down to the coast.
  • The Geomunoreum tube system is estimated to have formed roughly 100,000 to 300,000 years ago.
  • Manjanggul is home to the Jeju cave spider and holds more living species than any other cave in the Geomunoreum system.

Why it is worth it

Manjanggul is a tunnel left behind by molten rock. When lava from the Geomunoreum volcano in north-eastern Jeju flowed towards the sea, its surface cooled into a crust while the liquid rock kept moving underneath. When the flow drained away it left a hollow pipe. The main tube of Manjanggul runs for close to 9 km, among the longest lava tubes known, and in places it is more than 20 m high, with two or three storeys of passages stacked on top of each other. Gimnyeonggul, a shorter S-shaped tube near its lower end, was once part of the same channel until lava blocked the passage between them. Together they have been a Korean natural monument since 1962, and they belong to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes.

The inside of the tube still records how the lava moved. Shelves along the walls mark levels where the flow stood for a while. Ropy flowstone covers the floor, lava stalactites drip from the ceiling, and here and there sit lava rafts, blocks of solidified crust that the flow carried along and dropped. The best-known feature is a lava column about 7.6 m high, formed where molten rock poured through a hole in the roof and piled up on the floor. It is described as the largest known anywhere. For a lava tube, Manjanggul is unusually well preserved, and that is what gives it its scientific value.

Only about a kilometre is open to visitors, entered through the second of the tube's three openings. The rest is protected, because the cave is alive. It holds the largest known colony of bats in Korea, at least 30,000 bent-winged bats, along with cave spiders and other small creatures adapted to the dark. The lit visitor section shows the scale of the passage: a dark, round-walled tunnel that feels more like the inside of a vein than an ordinary cave.

Getting there

Manjanggul is in Gujwa-eup, on Jeju's north-east side, about 23 km from Jeju City. Jeju International Airport (CJU) is 25.9 km away. Buses run from Jeju City to the Gimnyeong transfer stop, where a local circular route continues to the cave. Alternatively, trunk bus 201 stops at the Manjanggul entrance on the main road, about 2.5 km uphill from the cave.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Jeju 5The Most Beautiful Places in South Korea 21The Most Remarkable Lava Tubes 4The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders in South Korea 5The Most Beautiful Caves 86The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders 580

From the encyclopaedia

Manjanggul (Korean: 만장굴) is a lava tube located in Gimnyeong-ri, Gujwaeup, Jeju City, South Korea. At up to 23 metres (75 ft) wide, 30 metres (98 ft) high and 8.928 km long, it is the 12th-longest lava tube in the world and the second longest on Jeju Island. It is the only cave of the Geomunoreum Lava Tube System, considered one of the finest lava tube systems in the world. It is regularly open to the public, although a significant portion of the cave is closed to visitors. It is also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, under the item Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

33.52825, 126.77014per Wikidata