Grotte de Lombrives or Lombrives Cave is a large natural cavern located in

Ornolac-Ussat-les-Bains Ornolac-Ussat-les-Bains ( Occitan ''Ornolac e Ussat'') is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France. Population Inhabitants are called ''Ornolacois''. See also *Communes of the Ariège department The following is a list ...

, at the eastern edge of the Pyrénées Ariégeoises Natural Regional Park, in the Ariège department of

Occitanie Occitanie may refer to: *Occitania, a region in southern France called ''Occitanie'' in French *Occitania (administrative region) Occitania ( ; french: Occitanie ; oc, Occitània ; ca, Occitània ) is the southernmost administrative region of ...

, in southwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is still advertised as "the largest cave in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

" on their website, but in 2017 the cave came under new management and a new website was created which removed the former's fantastically exaggerated statements, including a non-existent Guinness World Record. Those exaggerations persist online on numerous other web pages. The cave has a length of . It is located inside a limestone mountain named Cap de la Lesse between the Vicdessos and Ariège valley. There are three caves in this mountain, Niaux and Sabart in the Vicdessos valley, Lombrives in the Ariège valley. All three caves together are long, but while it is obvious that they belong to the same system, only the caves of Niaux and Lombrives are connected; neither is connected with Sabart. The caves are found on two main levels, the upper level around above sea level and the lower level around , which are the main stages of cave development. There is also an intermediate level at which has much fewer passages but is the entrance section of the Lombrives show cave. The three levels are connected by numerous vertical shafts. The cave has two huge chambers which are both part of the tourist trail. The Cathedral Chamber, which is high, is on the regular tour. To make this size a little more understandable the guides compare it with the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, which would fit into the chamber. The even bigger Salle de l’Empire de Satan ("Chamber of the Empire of Satan") is the end of the long cave trekking tour which is also offered. It is located from the entrance. A shaft in the floor of the chamber called Garrigou pit is deep. The engineer and geologist Raoul Perpère (1864–1950) constructed a bridge across the pit in 1927, while he was developing the cave as a show cave. The cave has a great variety of

speleothem 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 ...

s or formations, including stalactites, stalagmites,

rimstone Rimstone, also called gours, is a type of speleothem (cave formation) in the form of a stone dam. Rimstone is made up of calcite and other minerals that build up in cave pools. The formation created, which looks like stairs, often extends into fl ...

pools, cave pearls,

helictite A helictite is a speleothem (cave-formed mineral) found in a limestone cave that changes its axis from the vertical at one or more stages during its growth. Helictites have a curving or angular form that looks as if they were grown in zero gra ...

s, and calcite

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macro ...

s. The cave has served as a refuge throughout history. The earliest excavations by Félix Régnault took place in the late 19th century and confirmed human occupation during the

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 ...

. It was also used for the burial of a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

man. Between the 12th and 14th centuries the " heretic"

Cathars Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. F ...

gathered at the site. Later the cave was a hideout for

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

s. Today the cave is a tourist attraction, offering a selection of guided tours lasting between two and five hours. 260px, ''Homo sapiens'' Bronze Age, Noulet 1882 MHNT In 2021 the Deep Time experiment took place in the cave, during which a group of 15 volunteers spent 40 days in the cave as an experiment to see how the lack of clocks, daylight and external communications would affect them.

References

Links

Grotte de Lombrives
Official Website

Deep Time
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