The Lost Forest World of the World’s Largest Cave
In this technologically advanced age of Google Earth and ever expanding exploration of our planet, there are fewer and fewer places that remain hidden from the gaze of humankind. We are exploring the forests, mountains, and seas of the world at an ever growing pace, and the ancient places that once lied in pristine remoteness beyond our grasp are being uncovered for all to see. But what of under our feet? What of the lost realms of the deep places of the world? In the case on one massive cave in Vietnam, a lost, prehistoric world sat hidden for millions of years deep under the forest floor until pure happenstance started our first steps into a place that time forgot.
In 1991, a local farmer by the name of Ho Khanh was walking along a stretch of lush forest within the heart of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh province, near the border between Laos and Vietnam. It was an area that he had passed many times before and he was not paying any particular attention to his surroundings when suddenly the jungle floor opened up beneath him and Mr. Khanh only barely managed to hold on as the ground crumbled beneath him. When he was able to get his bearings, he peered into the gaping chasm that had suddenly appeared out of the thick foliage and saw that there was now a steep drop where he had stood that descended down into darkness. By pure chance and blind luck, this man had discovered an entrance that had remained hidden from man for millions of years into what would turn out to be the largest cave in the world, a behemoth five times larger than the largest known cave at the time.
World’s largest cave.
For years the entrance remained unexplored. Locals were afraid to go near it, partly because of the dauntingly steep drop, and partly because of the strange roaring sounds that bellowed out from its depths, later found to be caused by a raging river far below. In addition, there was an eerie mist that seeped out of the cave, a phenomenon caused by the cooler air below meeting the hot jungle air above, which gave the area a surreal, unearthly atmosphere. All of these things conspired to deter the superstitious locals from entering, and so the cave mouth remained unexplored and untouched, just as it had been for countless millennia.
It was not until 2009 that members of the British Cave Research Association undertook an expedition to penetrate into the mysterious jungle cavern and explore the darkness below. By that time the man who originally had found it no longer even remembered exactly where it was, so the team had to ascertain its position from what he could recall and from other locals, who still feared it. It was to be the beginning of a breathtaking journey into an ancient, forgotten realm that no human being had ever set foot in.
