LA GORGE DU DIABLE

Diavolskoto Geurlo, the Devil's Gorge, is located near Trigrad, at the edge of the gorge of the same name. It seems likely that this cave, first explored in 1962 by speleologists Nicolas Korchev and Helena Padareva, was formed by a landslide. This one shelters the highest underground waterfall of the Balkans. The river flows into the Devil's Mouth to fall into the largest underground chamber in the Balkans (110 m long, 35 high and 40 wide). The gallery siphons the water, 400 m lower, and this one comes out in the torrent below. The cave remains to be explored and feeds the legends. According to the Thracian mythology, it is by this cave that Orpheus would have gone down to the Underworld, kingdom of the god Hades, to bring back to life Eurydice, his beloved. At the end of the large room, two sculptures, carved in the wall, illustrate this legend. The visit of the Devil's Throat is not suitable for claustrophobic people, at least in its first part! The cave is accessible through a 150 m long tunnel dug by hand in the rock, tunnel that joins the main room at the foot of the impressive waterfall. Then, we go up a long metallic staircase next to the waterfall to emerge above the abyss along the road that we go down again to join quickly the parking lot. Finally, you should know that among other cavernicolous species, the cave shelters a very important colony of Schreiber's bats(Miniopterus schreibersii). You have been warned!