The Cango Caves are located in

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

s at the foothills of the

Swartberg The Swartberg mountains (''black mountain'' in Afrikaans) are a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is composed of two main mountain chains running roughly east–west along the northern edge of the semi-arid Little ...

range near the town of

Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn (, ), the "ostrich capital of the world", is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, located between the Swartberg mountains to the north and the Outeniqua Mountains to the south. Two ostrich-feather booms, during 1865–1 ...

, in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 202 ...

Province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. The principal cave is one of the country's finest, best known, and most popular tourist caves and attracts many visitors from overseas. Although the extensive system of tunnels and chambers go on for over , only about a quarter of this is open to visitors, who may proceed into the cave only in groups supervised by a guide.

History

Cave paintings and artifacts indicate that the caves were in use throughout prehistory over a long period during the Middle and

Later Stone Age The Later Stone Age (LSA) is a period in African prehistory that follows the Middle Stone Age. The Later Stone Age is associated with the advent of modern human behavior in Africa, although definitions of this concept and means of studying it ...

s .Goodwin, A.J.H. 1930. The chronology of the Mossel Bay Industry. ''South African Journal of Science''. 27:562-72 The caves were rediscovered in modern times in 1780 by a local farmer named Jacobus Van Zyl.Henry Hall, 1859
''Manual of South African Geography: Forming a Companion to the Map of South Africa to 16° South Latitude.''
Cape Town: S. Solomon. p. 161. The chamber he first was lowered down into was found to be as long as a football field, and is named Van Zyl Hall in his honor. Further exploration was done and a second chamber discovered in 1792. The caves soon became a popular place to visit.Robert Gray, 1856
''Three Months' Visitation, by the Bishop of Capetown, in the Autumn of 1855.''
London: Bell & Daldy. pp. 70-73. in 1829 Dr Andrew Smith visited the Cango Caves, which had much to offer his scientific curiosity A.J.H. Goodwin, an archaeologist at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, carried out a test excavation in the Cango Caves in 1930 which found stone artefacts and other cultural material. The Cango Caves Ordinance of 1971 gave certain legal powers over the caves to what was then the Administrator of the Cape; legally, these same powers now devolve to the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...

members of the executive. However, day-to-day management of the caves is the responsibility of the municipality of Oudtshoorn.

Legends of the caves

Mr. Johnny van Wassenaer, the cave’s first official guideBurman, Jose (1981). ''The Little Karoo'', p114-124, Human & Rousseau Publishers (Pty. Ltd.), Cape Town. is purported to have walked 29 hours to find the end of the caves in 1898. When there, he is said to have calculated that he was from the entrance, and underground; his route apparently followed an underground river. So far, explorers are finding more and more caves to support this story.South African Speleological Society (1960). ''Kango'', Maskew Miller Ltd., Cape Town

Surveys and explorations

The first rough survey was done in 1897, mapping out the first 26 chambers. In 1956 the South African Spelaeological Association was tasked to draw up an accurate mapping of the Cango Caves, and look for alternative entrances. Their results indicated that the caves were long in a single line, and that they never rise nor fell more than . These were called Cango I. The nearest point to the surface in the caves is at the top of the shaft in the Devil's Kitchen, from the floor. In 1972 James Craig-Smith, Luther Terblanche and Dart Ruiters widened an obstructed passage to discover Cango II. It stretches beyond the end of the Devil’s Kitchen. At the end of Cango II there is a shaft that descends to a chamber filled with water. This water flowed in the direction of Cango I. In August 1975, during a symposium on cave biology, an exploration team led by Hans Oosthuizen, Luther Terblanche, Michale Schultz, Digby Ellis, Jean Paul Matisse, Bob Mann, Florus Koper and Peter Breedt drained the chamber of most of its water and crawled through what was previously an underwater passage. This led to the discovery of more caves, called Cango III. Altogether these caves are about long. The biggest of the chambers, stretches about . Digby Ellis and Dave Land added to Cango III when they discovered a crawlway in December 1977. A further was added in June 1978. All these extensions were surveyed in August 1978 by Dave Land, Charles Maxwell, Brian Russell and Dave Crombie.

Tourism

Tours are conducted at regular intervals on most days—there is a "Standard Tour" which takes an hour and an "Adventure Tour" which takes an hour and a half. The "Adventure Tour" consists of crawling through narrow passages and climbing up steep rock formations guided by small lights. The caves contain halls and limestone formations (on both tours) as well as small passages on the Adventure Tour. The smallest passage that tourists will have to pass through on the Adventure Tour is just under 15 cm to exit. Visiting the caves are considered to be part of exploring the scenic Route 62. The Cinema Museum in London holds film of a visit to the caves in the 1930s.

References

External links

Cango Caves homepage

Big woman in tight passage blocks cave
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