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CAVES & CAVING

The Karst in Romania is only about 2% of the land surface, but there are more than 12,000 known caves, 35 of which claiming over 3km of passage, 8 of those over 10km, and the greatest in size being mapped at about 50km . The most important regions are the Apuseni Mountains, in the west of the country, and the Aninei Mountains & Mehedinti Plateau in the southern Carpathians.

The country may be in the Dark Ages in a lot of respects, but Speleology wise it has been at the forefront of the science. Emil Racovita (1868-1947) a Romanian, reputedly founded the Worlds first Speleological Institute (1921). This was near the Karst region of the Apuseni Mountains at Cluj Napoca university. But the Romanian who claims the first known/recorded cave Exploration is Barbenius, the Vicar of Rasnov who visited Pestera Cerna Deal, in 1703.

There are also a couple of anomalies, Cave wise in the country which are worthy of note. These being The Pestera  6S de la  Minzalesti, a cave formed in salt, and the Pestera din valea lui Mos Stoian (southern Dobrogea) which is only 102m long, but formed in Loess.