Skocjan Caves

Skocjan Caves is a cave system in Slovenia. Due to its exceptional significance, Skocjan Cave was entered on UNESCO’s list of natural and cultural world heritage sites in 1986.

International scientific circles have thus acknowledged the importance of the caves as one of the natural treasures of planet Earth. Ranking among the most important caves in the world, Skocjan Caves represents the most significant underground phenomena in both the Karst region and Slovenia. Following its independence, the Republic of Slovenia committed itself to actively protecting the Skocjan Caves area; for this reason, it established the Skocjan Caves Regional Park, Slovenia and its Managing Authority, the Skocjan Caves Park Public Service Agency.

Ljubljana to Skocjan Caves are an World Heritage – UNESCO because of one of the largest known underground canyons found in the world by this day, examples of natural beauty with great aesthetic value, due to particular microclimatic conditions a special ecosystem has developed, the area has great cultural and historical significance as it has been inhabited since the prehistoric times, a typical example of contact Karst…

Ljubljana to Skocjan Caves is, above all, a natural phenomenon of global significance, ranking side by side with the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos Islands, Mount Everest and others. Ranking among the most important caves in the world, Skocjan Caves represents the most significant underground phenomena in the Karst region. Skocjan Caves was also entered on the List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance on 18 May 1999. Together with the underground stream of the Reka River, they represent one of the longest karst underground wetlands in Europe.

The Reka River disappears underground at Velika Dolina into Skocjan Cave and then flows underground for 34 km towards the Adriatic Sea surfacing near Monfalcone where it becomes the source of the Timavo River. The view of the big river, in the rainy season as it disappears underground, on the bottom of Velika Dolina, 160 m under the surface, is both majestic and frightening.

Ljubljana to Skocjan Caves – The exceptional volume of the underground canyon is what distinguishes Skocjan Caves from other caves and places it among the most famous underground features in the world. The river flowing through the underground canyon turns northwest before the Cerkvenik Bridge and continues its course along Hanke’s Channel. This underground channel is approximately 3.5 km long, 10 to 60 m wide and over 140 m high. At some points, it expands into huge underground chambers.

The largest of these is Martel’s Chamber with a volume of 2.2 million cubic m and it is considered the largest discovered underground chamber in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It is interesting to note that an underground canyon of such dimensions ends with a relatively small siphon: one that cannot deal with the enormous volume of water that pours into the cave after heavy rainfall, causing major flooding, during which water levels can rise by more than one hundred metres.

It is, however, difficult to establish when tourism, as such, in Skocjan truly commenced. According to some sources, in 1819 the county’s councilor Matej Tominc (Tominc Cave is named after him) ordered that the steps to the bottom of Velika dolina be made (according to other sources they were only renovated). On this occasion, more precisely on 1 January 1819, a visitors’ book was introduced. This date can unequivocally be considered the beginning of modern tourism in Skocjan.

In recent years Skocjan Caves Park has around 100,000 visitors per year. Now visitors can view the part of the underground canyon with collapsed valley Velika Dolina. In the second half of 2010 they re-opened the first part of the Caves – Mariniceva and Mahorciceva Cave with a collapsed valley Mala dolina. Ljubljana to Skocjan Caves

The distance from Ljubljana to Skocjan Caves is around 90 km.
The journey takes 1 hour and the average cruise speed is 100km/h.