Sơn Đoòng – World’s Biggest Cave

On September 14, 2013 by Tim Newman

The biggest chamber in Sơn Đoòng is 5 kilometres long,  250m high and 150 wide. That’s larger than a sizable drawing room.

British Team Believe They Have Found The Largest Cave In The World Son Doong - Biggest Cave - Vietnam - Lush Jungle Floor 2

A cascading waterfall in Hang Son Doong.

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A Hang Son Doong explorer navigates an plant-covered cavescape. Son Doong - Biggest Cave - Vietnam - Lush Jungle Floor 3

Sơn Đoòng cave was created by erosion of the limestone by the cave’s internal river a couple of million years back. Some parts of the roof have collapsed giving the cave some handy natural lighting and allowing the plant life to flourish.

Son-doong-by-Ryan-Deboodt

A rock formation shines beneath a skylight in Hang Son Doong.

Some of the biggest cave pearls in the world have been discovered in the guts if this hollow leviathan. Cave pearls are spleothems and are made by the concretion of calcium salts that form like layers of an onion around a nucleus, like a grain of sand for instance. If they are in contact with running water they become shiny and shimmery as the name suggests.

Rare cave pearls fill dried-out terrace pools in Hang Son Doong.

Just to round this cave based jazz off, here’s one last fact: the largest cavern cave chamber in the world is called the Sarawak Chamber in Borneo. Get this – it’s three times the size of Wembley stadium….. wow.

Here is some impressive drone footage recently taken inside Sơn Đoòng. It helps put this mighty beast into perspective:

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