Caves of Kyrgyzstan
Caves are rightly called the cradle of humanity. Primitive people took shelter in them from the wind and cold, and from predatory beasts. Later, artificial caves created by humans appeared. There are very few artificial caves in Kyrgyzstan. The most notable are the salt mines of Chon-Tuz in the Kochkor district and the tunnel under the Tuy-Ashu pass on the Bishkek-Osh road.
Natural caves are formed as a result of karst processes in water-soluble rocks (limestones, gypsum, and rock salt), as the presence of soluble rocks is a prerequisite for cave formation. The largest number of caves is located in the south, in the area of the so-called Osh Hills, which occupy the foothills of the Pamir-Alai in the interfluve of the Aravan and Ak-Buura rivers. Currently, more than 100 caves are known. The most interesting and unusually beautiful are the caves of Chyl-Ustun and Ashkhona in the Aravan district; the caves of Surprise, Victory, Fersman, and Big Barite in the Nookat district; the caves of Kan-i-Gut and Jubilee in the Batken region; Kara-Unkur in the Uzgen district; the Zindan cave in the Alai Valley, and several others.
All questions related to caves are studied by the science of speleoogy (from the Greek "speleo" - cave). However, the content of this concept has changed over time. Today, speleology is understood as one of the Earth sciences that studies the origin, development, geological, hydrogeological, and microclimatic features of caves, their modern and ancient fauna, technical methods of underground penetration, and work in underground conditions.
People who study caves are called speleologists.
The unusual landscapes of the underground world, its beauty and diversity increasingly attract extreme tourists. Caves are becoming an attractive object for tourism; they possess not only amazing attractive qualities, a set of extreme and adventure factors, but also the ability to accumulate and preserve diverse information about the natural conditions of the past.
In the Tian Shan mountains, there are fairy-tale cities and towers that nature has sculpted from peaks and mountain ridges for centuries. These are caves, the realm of Pluto, adorned with stalactites and stalagmites...
An interesting cave was found by a speleological expedition in the Naryn region, in the mountains of the Molto-Too ridge. It did not have traditional stalactites and stalagmites, but it did have a small glacier about 15 m long. The floor and walls here are blue and cold, and on the ceiling, peculiar ice icicles sparkle like diamonds.
In one of the chambers of the cave, dry grass was discovered, and beneath it — a black coating. Could it be mummy? Indeed, it is. The thickness of the layer containing the legendary medicine sometimes reached 20-30 cm. What a find! Such deposits of mummy are extremely rare.
In the northwest of the Tian Shan, between the Kyrgyz ridge and Talas Ala-Too, in the Besh-Tash area, lies the Kuyul-Duyurek cave. According to the stories of the elders, no one dares to descend into it, as a noise resembling either the roar of falling water or the howling of the wind, or perhaps the cries of unknown creatures, is constantly heard from it.
The speleologists were greatly surprised when they descended into the cave and found not a waterfall, but even a tiny stream! The rumble and roar, which they took for the roar of falling water, is produced by a stream of air forcefully escaping from the narrow entrance of the cave. The length of the cave is more than 110 m, and its depth is over 30 m. In one of the chambers, traces of notches left by the picks of ancient miners, animal bones, shards of pottery, and remnants of hearths were found.
Divaïram — according to legend, a sacred cave, the abode of evil spirits, is located in the valley of the Sokh River in Haidarkan. Once, a beautiful girl disappeared from a small village. The tracks led to the cave. However, no one dared to descend into it. Since then, every spring, a stream appears from a small round hole in the sheer wall. They say it is the tears of the beauty mourning her bitter fate. The length of the cave is about 140 m, and the walls are covered with cracks, sparkling from droplets of moisture.
The Manas Cave — a huge stone grotto that can accommodate up to fifty horses with riders. The legend says that in the Manas cave, Manas sheltered his horse from the bad weather. Nowadays, shepherds use this cave to shelter their flocks of sheep unexpectedly caught in bad weather.
“At an inaccessible height, on a rocky slope lies the entrance to a mysterious cave. A narrow sheer passage leads to a spacious hall, from which five corridors stretch in different directions. Each of them, in turn, necessarily divides into five new ones, and only one among this multitude of passages leads to a beautiful underground road, which can take you to a fairy-tale kingdom where countless treasures are gathered. In all other passages, the brave adventurer awaits death!” This legend about the Besh-Unkur cave lives in a small picturesque village of Tash-Ata, located between the ridges of Chyl-Ustun and Chyl-Mayram.
Speleologists found the legendary cave. But when asked how it looked before, it is difficult to answer. The cave turned out to be blocked by gigantic boulders. Who knows, maybe someday speleologists will find that very passage that will lead them to the wonderful underground river, beautifully described in the legend.
In the Batken district of the Osh region lies the Kan-i-Gut cave. It is not distinguished by an abundance of stalactites and stalagmites, but you can see a lot of so-called helictites and gypsum formations, rocky flowers, patterns, garlands, and shrubs. The cave impresses with its size. The total length of its passages, transitions, galleries, and grottos, explored by geologists and speleologists, is 98 km. This is 24 km longer than the famous Mammoth Cave in Kentucky (USA), which is considered as much a wonder of nature as Niagara Falls or the hot springs of Iceland.
The Chyl-Ustun cave in the Aravan district. There is much to see and listen to there. There are halls where, for example, the Frunze Circus could easily fit with all its auxiliary premises. They are adorned with dozens of sparkling light-pink columns and numerous stone sculptures.
Even the most skilled architect could not create this enchanting symphony of crystals. These crystals are not silent. If you lightly touch them, they produce a variety of sounds, sounds that probably no musician could reproduce.
The possibilities of speleotourism in Kyrgyzstan remain largely unexplored. The presence of extensive unexplored areas composed of karst rocks in the regions of the Kokshaala-Too ridge east of the Ak-Sai valley may open great prospects for the development of this unusual type of tourism.
