Treasures, as anyone who has read a book about pirates or has seen a film about treasure hunters knows, are hidden underground, in exotic and remote areas. Sometimes the loot found deep in the ground isn’t gold and silver coins or diamonds as described in those classic works, but an abundance of hidden and amazing natural treasures, created beneath the surface and hiding from the human eye. This is exactly the right way to describe an amazing stalactite cave called Terra Ronca, located in Brazil, South America.
In order to understand what amazing geological treasure we are talking about here, you are invited to take a guided tour of this wonderful magical cave, where you can admire the wonderful and extraordinary sights in it, which look like they were taken from another planet ...
The Terra Ronca Cave is located in a national park of the same name, near the city of Sao Domingos, in the state of Guías province, about 400 km north of its capital Brasilia. In this vast park, there are more than 200 natural tunnels and caves, Terra Ronca and Angelica are open to the general public.
Geologists studying the park have found a wealth of remains and fossils that indicate that millions of years ago these caves lay at the bottom of the sea. The geologists also explain that the spaces, stalactites, and stalagmites here formed from the combination of the rainwater and the flowing waters of the Lapa River (the river that now passes through the cave itself) that carved into the rock and created these amazing shapes. The tremendous changes that occurred on continents and on earth have brought the entire region above water.
Some interesting facts about the cave: The entrance is 96 meters high and 120 meters wide, and a few years ago a huge altar was erected next to it by a group of Christians living in the area. The Lapa River carved a tunnel measuring 6.8 kilometers, creating the enormous spaces that you can see in the images, up to 150,000 square meters in size, full of stalactites, stalagmites, and pillars rising to more than 590 meters.
The cave itself is divided into two parts, created by the collapse of rocks thousands of years ago. Its two parts are accessible to the public, but while the first part can be independently explored, the second part, which has been known as "Terra Ronca II," or “Malhada“ in Portuguese, can be visited only as part of a guided tour. In addition to the ceiling of the cave, which is shaped like a giant clock, you can see here a magnificent group of Macao parrots who live here. There is also a beautiful and large gallery known as the "lover’s Hall" which is illuminated by the sun's rays.
