Son Doong Cave belongs to the Phong Nha – Ke Bang cave complex, located in Son Trach commune, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province of our country. Up to now, this is always considered the largest natural cave in the world ever discovered.
1. Son Doong Cave was discovered because… it was raining
Son Doong Cave was discovered by a farmer named Ho Khanh in 1991. According to Ho Khanh, at that time he worked as a agarwood finder in the forest.
While going to work, he encountered a heavy rainstorm. Fearing a flash flood, Ho Khanh decided to find a place to shelter from the rain. By chance, he took shelter from the rain… right at Son Doong cave.
2. Son Doong Cave was missing for… 15 years
At the time of discovering Son Doong cave, Mr. Ho Khanh did not know the value of the cave. Not long after that trip, he quit his job of finding agarwood and returned to farming.
For the next 15 years, the whereabouts of this cave remained in the dark. It was not until 2006, when an expedition from the British Royal Society came to search for a new cave in Phong Nha – Ke Bang, that Mr. Khanh told them his story. That was also the time when the journey to find the old cave began.
3. Son Doong Cave is not displayed on… Google Earth
However, the trip to find the old cave was not completely successful. All that is in Mr. Khanh’s memory is a large cave with strong winds blowing 24/7.
Even with the help of state-of-the-art scientific equipment and Google Earth software, the expedition still could not find Son Doong cave. It was not until 2009 that Mr. Ho Khanh officially rediscovered the old cave.
4. Son Doong Cave “has more than enough capacity” to become an airplane apron
According to geologists, Son Doong cave was formed about 2 – 5 million years ago, when river water flowed across the buried limestone area along a fault line. The water caused erosion and created a giant tunnel like today.
The size of Son Doong cave is very large with a length of at least 5km, equivalent to the capacity of about 68 Boeing 777 aircraft.
This number could even be larger because according to scientists, today’s most modern means have not yet been able to explore the true length of this cave.
5. Son Doong Cave is called the “Great Wall” of Vietnam
In Son Doong cave, experts discovered locations of very large size. A photo taken by photographer Carten Peter in May 2010 recorded a cave section with a width of 91.44m and a dome nearly 243.84m high – completely “fitting” into a 40-storey building in New York.
National Geographic even compared that the cave is so high that 25 double-decker buses can be comfortably stacked inside.
The majesty and grandeur of the landscape of Son Doong cave caused it to be honored by the world as ” The Great Wall of Vietnam” (understood as “The Great Wall of Vietnam” , like ” The Great Wall” . of China” is the Great Wall of China).
6. Entering Son Doong cave, visitors can find… their own “garden of paradise”.
Not only famous for its huge size, Son Doong cave is also known for its diversity in biological landscape.
In Son Doong cave, explorers discovered a primeval forest with rich vegetation, without any trace of humans. Experts have even called the forest in this cave a “garden of Eden” to honor this beautiful beauty.
7. Son Doong Cave owns a “pearl” as big as… a baseball
Another special feature of Son Doong cave is the system of stalactites and giant cave “pearls”. Over millions of years under the influence of external forces, Son Doong possesses stalagmite columns up to 70m high.
In addition, people also discovered the world’s largest cave “pearls ” (jade covering a type of pearl-like seed under the sea, mainly composed of calcite) in Son Doong.
Normally, these “pearls” are only about 1cm in diameter, but in Son Doong, they are as big as a baseball.
8. Son Doong Cave attracts even supermodels to conquer
With its beauty, Son Doong cave attracts many tourists with 98% being foreigners. Among them, there are families in which all three generations have conquered this cave, or even supermodels like Jasmina Mala (Czech) and Crown Prince Ahmed Hamdan (from Abu Dhabi) have also explored the cave. The world’s largest in Vietnam.