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Unearthed Crimean cave to open to tourists within 18 months

The cave contains remains of preglacial mammals, including mastodons and mammoths

© Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

SIMFEROPOL, January 29. /TASS/. The cave containing remains of preglacial mammals, including mastodons and mammoths will be open for tourists after ventilation and infrastructure works are completed, the press service of the Crimean Federal University informed, citing Gennady Samokhin, chairman of the Russian Union of Speleologists and academic secretary of the Russian Geographical Society’s Crimean branch. The press service added that the cave would open for tourists in about 1.5 years.

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"The Crimean Federal University has all necessary geophysical equipment to monitor the underground environment in the cave and to look for undiscovered passages. We have analyzed over 1300 meters of corridors. We plan to equip the surface in the next year or year and a half. After that, we can open the cave for tourists," the press service quotes Samokhin as saying.

He noted that so far, the cave is not ventilated, and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air is 100 times higher than normal. The researcher added that massive research and improvement works in the cave would begin when the land including the cave will be transferred to the university’s property.

In July 2018, workers building the Tauride federal road in Crimea have discovered a spacious solutional cave that contains the remnants of bodies of pre-Glacial Age mammals. The federal road will go over the cave, preserving it in its natural state. Experts said the cave could have evidence of early human activity and help get a clearer picture of what Crimea looked like before the Ice Age.

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