Škocjan Caves

At Škocjan the Reka River, after some 55 km on the surface and a final four-kilometre gorge, runs up against a limestone wall and disappears underground. What it has carved beneath the Karst plateau is not a pretty grotto but one of the largest underground canyons known: the stretch called Šumeča jama, the Murmuring Cave, is about 3.5 km long, 10 to 60 metres wide and in places well over 100 metres high. Where the gorge widens it forms chambers, and the largest, Martel's Chamber, is 308 metres long, up to 123 metres wide and 146 metres high at the top of its vault, with a volume of about 2.2 million cubic metres. The river then flows on for 34 km out of sight and resurfaces at the springs of the Timavo near the Adriatic coast. The caves were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986.

The approach is part of the spectacle. Early in the Pleistocene the roof of the cave collapsed near the sinks, leaving two huge collapse dolines, Velika dolina up to 165 metres deep and Mala dolina about 120 metres deep, separated by a natural bridge of the original ceiling. The village of Škocjan, which gave the caves their name, sits on the rock between them. In the shaded depths of the dolines Alpine plants grow a short distance from Mediterranean species such as maidenhair fern, a rare pairing made possible by the cave's own microclimate. The canyon has also drawn people for a very long time. In the nearby Mušja jama shaft archaeologists recovered more than 600 metal objects from the 12th to 8th centuries BC, mostly broken and burnt weapons, interpreted as offerings at a Bronze Age cult site that drew pilgrims from as far as Italy, the Alps, Pannonia and the Balkans.

Written mentions go back to antiquity, the dolines appear on 16th-century maps, and Valvasor described the river's sink in 1689. A visitors' book was started in 1819, and a path to the bottom of Velika dolina followed in 1823. Systematic exploration began in 1884, the year the Trieste section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club took over the caves and began guided tours. Explorers reached Dead Lake in 1890, and in 1904 local men scaled a 60-metre wall to discover Tiha jama, the Silent Cave. Today the caves are run by the Škocjan Caves Park public agency and can only be visited on a guided tour, which follows the underground canyon of the Reka. The air inside stays at about 12 degrees Celsius all year, so bring a layer even in August.

Getting there

The caves are in the municipality of Divača in south-west Slovenia. The nearest large city is Trieste in Italy, about 17 km away; on the Slovenian side, Koper is about 24 km away. The nearest airport is Trieste (TRS), about 45 km away; Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU) is about 72 km away. The nearest railway station is Divača, and in summer a hop-on hop-off shuttle links sights in the area.