Welcome to the Kungur Ice Cave!

Kungur Ice Cave is located in the vicinity of the ancient town of Kungur, 100km to the south-east of Perm city. This legendary cave is a real wonder of Nature. Quaintly ramified passages stretch under the ground for over 6000 metres. And this is only the part which has already been explored. To this day old slides and crumblings do not allow to to determine the total length of the passages. In the explored part of the cave there are several dozens of grottoes. The largest one, which is called the Druzhba (Friendship) Grotto, was given its name in honour of the participants of the International Geological Congress who visited the cave in 1937. Inside this grotto there is a lake 750 square metres in area. Grottoes are "adorned" with columns of stalagmites and icicles of stalactites up to two metres in height, with delicate traceries of ice and snow. Over millennia, drop by drop, lime-stone bearing water has created an infinite variety of forms in Kungur Ice Cave.

From time immemorial caves excite human imagination. How many myths, mysterious stories, legends and tales are associated with caves! How many enigmatic problems are hidden from scientists below subsurface arches.

The history of mankind is closely connected with caves. A primitive man used caves for keeping up fire and as dwelling to escape cold and enemy. Rituals of sacrifice were performed there. Having become an independent part of Nature, man utilized caves as stock-houses to keep food in a cold place. Nowadays due to growing activities of speleologists interest to subsurface voids is constantly increasing. At present space occupied by caves is considered to be a subsurface ocean of the Earth. Every year a great number of caves are discovered, but the old ones attract our attention as witnesses of past events.

On the Earth there are millions of caves differing in origin, age, dimensions and aspects. Formation of caves is closely connected with various processes taking place on the Earth surface and its bowels. Human activity also contributes to the process of cave formation.

Karst caves (developed in highly soluble rocks: limestone, gypsum, halite etc.) are found to be the most widely spread. Let's get better acquainted with Kungur Ice Cave formed in gypsum-anhydrate rocks and considered to be a typical example of karst caves.

In Russia Kungur Ica Cave occupies a place of particular importance. None of the caves has such a rich history and world fame as the cave in the bowels of Ledyanaya (Ice) Mountain. A cave system has developed in the vicinity of Kungur town, a center of the Urals in the past. High hills, forests, rivers and lakes make up unique landscapes of Kungur. Nowadays, Kungur Cave is annually visited by 200 thousand tourists. Experienced guides will lead you through intricate labyrinths and fantastic grottoes, each of exceptional beauty and mystery.

Water as Creator. In spring when saw sets in, or in autumn when it rains, the Sylva River starts flooding. Through joints and voids in the slopes of Ledyanaya Mountain river waters enter the cave. Excursions paths and observation grounds are overflooded, so the cave gets inaccessible for tourists. Aggressive thawing water actively dissolves bottoms, walls and, here and there, arches of cave reducing them to stony lace. Every flood results in an increase of cave dimensions. With a water level being normal, the cave development depends on subsurface water passing through the cave to the Sylva River.

When the flood is faded, a single cave water body is separated in a great number (more than 50) of subsurface lakes, the largest one is Bolshoye Podzemnoye (Great Subsurface) Lake. The water surface seems to be absolutely quiet. But water calmness is deceptive. Special devices register constant fluctuations of the water level in the lakes. Water samples collected at the depth of various lakes differ in chemical composition. Thin gypsum-calcite film is floating on the surface of the lakes, their depths are inhabited by crangonyx, blind and endemic.

Formation and development of karst caves are closely connected with water. Having dissolved karstic rock, water create voids and precipitates calcium carbonate. An active life of a cave is impossible without water, a great sculptor of voids. At the very beginning of the 18th century it was believed that Kungur Ice Cave was formed in the process of sulphate rock solution by subsurface water. Detailed study of paleogeographical situation of Kungur area and the evidence make it possible to conclude that both surface and subsurface waters take part in the formation of the cave. In a long period of time an infinite number of voids, not infrequently of grandiose dimensions, have been formed in the bowels of Ledyanaya Mountain. Stately grottoes: Ruiny (Ruines), Krestovy (Cross-Vaulted), Druzhba Narodov (People's Friendship), Velikan (Giant) Grottoes etc. produce an unforgettable impression. Fallen blocks turn grottoes into a stony chaos. Some fragments bear a strong resemblance to mythical monsters and chimeras. The walls of narrow, not accessible channels are decorated with gypsum crystals, sometimes as fine and delicate as down. Fantastical formations of cave ice remind us of frozen music.

Wonder of Ledyanaya Mountain. The surface of Ledyanaya Mountain is pitted with a great number of sink holes and depressions formed above the voids the Kungur Cave. Surface and subsurface karst formations greatly decrease engineering geological stability of the territory. Kungur Cave is located in picturesque surroundings. Nature generously rewards kungur land with beautiful landscapes, pure rivers and lakes, grandiose rocky massifs and mysterious caves. The beauty of Kungur area has always attracted people's attention.

One of the most striking things about the region is the rapidity with which flora changes from day to day, at one moment flooding sharp slopes with a delicate pink color, at the other - covering all round with a luxuriant multiflorous carpet. In spring Ledyanaya Mountain is clothed with blooming anemones; from the very first days of summer it is masked under a silk blanket of silvery feather-grass; at that time there is always a scent of honey from the lime-trees in flower. Rare sorts of vegetation, endemic and relic, are encountered there. Mountain slopes are partially covered with a young pine woods and, not characteristically of taiga zone, steppe and forest-steppe vegetation left from the past geological epochs.

When a festival of flowers and colors reigns on the surface of the mountain its bowls are ice-bound by an ever-lasting cold. Winter comes and the subsurface landscape changes at once. Percolating ground water becomes frozen and turns to stalactites, stalagmites and ice columns. Arches of near entrance grottoes, where moisture is condensed, are decorated with sparkling garlands of ice crystals. The crystals look like giant accrete snow-flakes with a delicate structure made of plates and needle-like spikes, their combinations condition the variety of crystal forms: tabular, pyramidal rectangular or dendritic. Snow-ice crystals and sculptures are a beautiful decoration of Kungur Ice Cave.

The Past and Present of Kungur Land. The cave assumed the name of an old Russian town - Kungur founded in 1663. In the 18-19th centuries Kungur was known as one of the major centers of copper-smelting industry in the Urals. A great number of copper mines have been explored in Kungur area.

The town is famous for its architectural monuments, including twelve stone churches, each being a unique example of architective art. Surrounded on all sides by mountains, it lies in a kind of gigantic bowl. Only the town center, which took its shape in the course of several centuries, is spread over a mountain. One can enjoy magnificent views from neighboring mountains - Ledyanaya, Irenskaya and Spasskaya. Many-storied buildings of new districts can be seen from there but they do not block the view of ancient architectural monuments. Such as, the church of the Transfiguration with five cupolas and 36 metres-high, 8-sided bell tower built in 1781, the Voevoda's (military leader) two-storied house built in 1758-62, in which A.Radishev, a famous Russian writer and political figure, stayed in 1790 on his way into Siberian exile, the Gostiny Dvor (a trade arcade) built in 1865-76 by the architect R. Kavrovsky and many other original structures. History of bygone days is told by sites of ancient towns discovered in the vicinity of Ledyanaya Mountain. Chronicles say about a winter stay of Ermak, the legendary Russian Hero and subjugator of Siberia, in Kungur Cave.

The first plan of Kungur Ice Cave was made in the 18th century by a well-known geographer and cartographer S. Remizov. The first descriptions of the cave belongs to V.Tatischev, manager of works in the Urals and Siberia, and his successor V. Gennin.

Kungur Ice Cave has been visited by many outstanding Russian and foreign explorers, remarkable historical figures and even a princess.

A.Khlebnikov played an important part in discovering subsurface wonder land. In the days of his youth he was fond of travelling and he had a lucky chance to visit Mammoth Cave,one of the most interesting caves of the world. That was precisely the fact that explained his dream to make Kungur Ice Cave as famous and visited as Mammoth cave was. Since 1914 A.Khlebnikov devoted himself to Kungur Cave, its preservation, organization of excursions and services.

Nowadays, Kungur is an important industrial, scientific and tourist center of the Urals. A great variety of articles produced by Kungur enterprises are exported to many foreign countries, hand-made stone-cutting goods are of particular interest.

Every year thousands of tourists come to Kungur. The most popular routes run down the Sylva,Iren and Shakva rivers. The Sylva River flows leisurely now over a flat plateau, now across Preduraliye Nature Preserve, now past abrupt cliffs rising high into the sky. This is fossilized remnants of of coral reefs left by the long-disappeared Great Permian Sea. At some places the reefs rise up to 100 metres above the level of the Sylva River. Their tops are covered with pine and fir groves.

Local people love their land. They are sure that there is no place in the world like the land of their ancestors. And another thing they love is to welcome guests.