Winter fairy tale all year round, Pinezhye caves

The caves of Pinezhye are the real ice kingdom of the dungeon. They are not at all like the caves of the Caucasus or the Crimea. Pinega caves go deep into the earth, but they are longer in length. Passages, tunnels and galleries of caves repeat the flow of groundwater. The forms of the caves are amazing: here the labyrinths twist, passages form crossroads.

In the caves it is always very cold — in summer the air temperature is about zero. But it is the cold that creates the extraordinary beauty of the Pinega caves. And in the summertime there are surprisingly beautiful covered with hoar-frosted vaults, delicate snowflakes, various icicles. In winter, when you get into a cave, you seem to be transported to a fairy tale. You are surrounded by icy palaces of arches, ceilings and walls are brightly sparkling. Surprise the beauty of frozen splashes of water and frozen waterfalls.

Not only are the caves beautiful. Her stones are also amazing. The low mountains are made of plaster, which has a pinkish color, and, like karst rocks, they bend, taking on bizarre shapes. Therefore, they are exactly like corals. In addition, amazing stone outgrowths hang from the ceiling, stretch on the walls, cover the rocks of caves like an openwork shawl.

Karst rocks are famous for forming unexpected dips and voids. Pinezhye has a record number of such voids in European Russia. For every ten square kilometers there is a cave here.

Now Pinezhye is recognized as a reserve, whose main task is to study and protect karst reliefs. Numerous caves promise many more discoveries to scientists. They change all the time, as the karst rocks are soft, and water is actively doing its job. It is a pity that one human life can not see how the layout and design of the Pinega caves change, how their forms change, old passages are closed and new ones are opened.