Devetàshka cave ( bg, Деветашката пещера) is a large karst cave around east of

Letnitsa Letnitsa ( bg, Летница , also transliterated ''Letnitza'', ''Letnica'') is a town in central northern Bulgaria, part of Lovech Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Letnitsa Municipality and lies in the northeastern ...

and northeast of

Lovech Lovech ( bg, Ловеч, Lovech, ) is a city in north-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the Lovech Province and of the subordinate Lovech Municipality. The city is located about northeast from the capital city of Sofia. Near ...

, near the village of

Devetaki Devetaki is a village in Lovech Municipality, Lovech Province, northern Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flan ...

on the east bank of the river

Osam The Osam ( bg, Осъм ) is a river in northern Bulgaria. Its drainage basin is in between that of the river Vit to the west and the Yantra system to the east. Поречието на р. Осъм The river has two main tributaries in its upper ...

, in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. The site has been continuously occupied by Paleo humans for tens of thousands of years, served as a shelter for various faunal species during extensive periods and is now home to nearly 30,000

bats Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bir ...

Location

Devetashka cave is located approximately from the village of

. A narrow path by the river leads from the village to the cave. It can also be accessed directly via Road 301 along a long dirt road and a concrete bridge. Now part of a public park, that includes a waterfall, the long karst cave formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks, characterized by sinkholes and an underground river. It is rich in

speleothems A speleothem (; ) is a geological formation by mineral deposits that accumulate over time in natural caves. Speleothems most commonly form in calcareous caves due to carbonate dissolution reactions. They can take a variety of forms, depending on ...

, stalagmites, stalactites, countless rivulets and majestic natural domes. The site is wide and high at the entrance. The cave widens after around , forming a spacious hall with an area of , a height of that can reach up to . Several large openings in the ceiling allow daylight to lighten the vast interior, due to commercial use of the site during the 1950s. Rediscovered in 1921, excavations began only in the 1950s and revealed almost continuous human occupation since the late Paleolithic. Earliest traces of human presence date back to the Middle Paleolithic around 70,000 years ago. The site also contained one of the richest sources of

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

cultural artifacts (6,000 to 4,000 BC).

Fauna

Besides significant archaeological findings, Devetashka cave provides a habitat for a wide diversity of faunal residents. During the breeding season of mammalian species in the cave from early June to the end of July, the site is entirely closed to visitors. Twelve species of protected amphibians and reptiles, including the

Aesculapian snake The Aesculapian snake (now ''Zamenis longissimus'', previously ''Elaphe longissima''), is a species of nonvenomous snake native to Europe, a member of the Colubrinae subfamily of the family Colubridae. Growing up to in length, it is among th ...

(''Zamenis longissimus''), the

Triturus ''Triturus'' is a genus of newts comprising the crested and the marbled newts, which are found from Great Britain through most of continental Europe to westernmost Siberia, Anatolia, and the Caspian Sea region. Their English names refer to thei ...

(''Triturus cristatus''), the

European tree frog The European tree frog (''Hyla arborea'') is a small tree frog. As traditionally defined, it was found throughout much of Europe, Asia and northern Africa,Frost, Darrel R. ''Amphibian Species of the World''. Allen Press, Inc., 1985, p. 126. but b ...

(''Hyla arborea''),

Hermann's tortoise Hermann's tortoise (''Testudo hermanni'') is a species of tortoise. Two subspecies are known: the western Hermann's tortoise (''T. h. hermanni'' ) and the eastern Hermann's tortoise (''T. h. boettgeri'' ). Sometimes mentioned as a subspecies, ...

(''Testudo hermanni''), eighty-two bird species can be found in the area, thirteen of which are included in the

Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. Thirty-four species of mammals, four of which are included in the

and fifteen species of bats are to be found at the Devetashka cave.

Filming

Devetashka cave was shown in the action movie ''

The Expendables 2 ''The Expendables 2'' is a 2012 American action film directed by Simon West, written by Richard Wenk and Sylvester Stallone and based on a story by Ken Kaufman, David Agosto and Wenk. Brian Tyler returned to score the film. It is the sequel to ...

'', filmed in 2011. The

Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria The Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria was first established on 25 November 1878 as one of the three divisions of the then-single Supreme Court. It did not exist during the Communist rule, but was restored in 1991. The purpose of the Cou ...

declared that several activities during filming violated

's environmental regulations. A contractor hired by The Expendables crew was subsequently fined for trimming the shrubbery in front of the site. After a fatal accident during the filming of a stunt, the production team again clashed with the authorities over damages to the cave. Loud noises, bright lights, crowds of people and fires in close proximity to the cave might have caused the displacement of large numbers of bats from the cave. However, by late 2012, the majority of the bats had returned to the cave.

References

External links

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Devetashka Cave
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