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Backpacker Magazine – March 2009
Wilderness Wonders: Biggest Cave
The Sarawak Chamber at Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysia has over 186 miles of caves.
Light shines into Deer Cave in Malaysia (Photo by Sarawak Tourism Board)
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Biggest Cave | Scariest Predator | Driest Desert | Hottest Geysers | Largest Glacier | Highest Peak | Tallest Tree | Highest Biodiversity | Largest Primate | Most Active Volcano | Strangest Rock Formation | Biggest Bear | Largest Crater | Farthest Migrator | Tallest Waterfall
What Bats, salamanders, fish, and eyeless arthropods lurk among the stalactites and stalagmites of the world's underground caverns. Even cooler: Experts estimate that only 10 percent of all caves have been explored. The archetypal chambers owe their existence to carbonic acid from groundwater and rain–when the acid reaches limestone or other soft subterranean rock, it eats through to form deep, long caverns like Abkhazia, Georgia's Voronya Cave (reaching 7,190 feet beneath the earth's surface) and Kentucky's Mammoth Cave (stretching nearly 350 miles).
Where Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia. Tour the highlights of this park's 186 miles of mapped passages. Take a three-hour riverside hike to reach the planet's biggest cave chamber, Sarawak Chamber (it can hold 10 jumbo jets lined up nose to tail), or explore Deer Cave, where 3 million wrinkle-lipped bats make a nightly appearance. Above ground, traverse a remote jungle wilderness on the seven-mile Headhunter's Trail, a traditional path once used by warring Borneo natives (guides required for cave tours and highly recommended for hiking). mulupark.com
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READERS COMMENTS
Yes, Mammoth has more miles of surveyed passage. It is the longest cave. However, Mulu contains some of the largest caves, by volume. Deer Cave may be the largest by volume anywhere, and Sarawak Chamber is the largest single room in any cave in the world.
Yes, Mammoth has more miles of surveyed passage. It is the longest cave. However, Mulu contains some of the largest caves, by volume. Deer Cave may be the largest by volume anywhere, and Sarawak Chamber is the largest single room in any cave in the world.
Sorry Mammoth is bigger
For me it's a matter of time and expense. Mammoth is only 8 hours away, I don't have to worry about plane travel to another country (although Malaysia would be a cool place to see) and I can take my family for a few hundred dollars as opposed to a few thousand.
Don't get me wrong this cave sounds amazing. Just weird I was just planning a trip to Kentucky for this spring to see mammoth cave and the thousands of acres of national park.
Worlds largest cave is in Kentucky. Mammoth cave is recorded at more then 365 miles long. Here is a link to national geographic.
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/mammoth-cave-national-park/
That "soft" rock you refer to can more accurately be called "organic" rock. Limestone is the most common, but not-so-soft marble can also be included. I've been in several marble caves and they are spectacular. I've also visited a chalk cave (limestone that wasn't squeezed enough) in Tennessee where the walls were so soft you could push your finger into it with very little effort. The only solution caves that aren't organic (that I know of) are salt caves and ice caves.
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