Travel Challenge # 14: Strawberry cave

Situated on the right bank of the Buinovska River and as part of the Buynovsko Gorge, Strawberry Cave is among the most visited caves in Bulgaria. It is located 3 km from the village of Yagodina. The total length of the cave galleries is over eight kilometers and this makes it one of the longest in the country. The cave is entered through a special entrance to the lowest of its three floors, which has been refurbished and illuminated. The temperature in it is between 6 and 8 ° C throughout the year.

Next to the cave entrance is a memorial plaque of the founder of speleology in the Central Rhodopes - Dimitar Raichev.

Strawberry cave is part of the 100 national tourist sites. In some of its halls there are many ceremonies - in the Ritual Hall, equipped with an altar, many lovers marry, and in the so-called " A New Year's Hall local speleologists welcome New Year's Eve. From this hall begins the tour of the cave along a kilometer-long route that reveals a beautiful underground world formed for thousands of years

In the cave there are almost all kinds of cave formations - draperies, stalagmites, stalactites, stalactites, leopard skin, cave pearls and many others.

Besides the many beautiful formations and the cave pearls, the only one in our country, the Strawberry Cave is also known for being inhabited by the Eneolithic (Stone-Copper Age). A special museum exposition reveals open remains of dwelling, ceramic vessels, cannon, ceramic furnace and more. Surveys show that ancient craftsmen-craftsmen lived here, who had extracted the clay from the interior of the cave and had made various articles. The exposition is shaped in the natural entrance of the cave, which is about one kilometer downstream of the Buinovska River, after the artificial entrance through which tourist visits are made to the cave floor of the cave. The lecture lasts about 20 minutes and a separate fee is paid for it. This exposure is preserved and closed for visits during the autumn-winter period.

Strawberry cave is one of the important places for the conservation of the bat populations in Bulgaria. During the different seasons in the cave there are 11 species, 6 of them being priority for conservation throughout Europe: Little Horseshoe, Great Horseshoe, Big Bumblebee, Ostrouh Bumblebee, Longboat Bumblebee and Tricolor Bumblebee.

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