Gruta de Maquiné (MG-0243) (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Maquiné Grotto), also Lapa Nova de Maquiné, is the oldest and one of the most commercially visited caves in Brazil. It is located about from

Cordisburgo Cordisburgo is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil. It is the birthplace of the writer João Guimarães Rosa. See also *List of municipalities in Minas Gerais This is a list of the municipalities in the ...

and northwest of

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

, in the State of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

. The cave has seven huge chambers explored, amounting to (linear) and unevenness of the ground of only . Safety measures like lighting, walkways and

handrail A handrail is a rail that is designed to be grasped by the hand so as to provide safety or support. In Britain, handrails are referred to as banisters. Handrails are usually used to provide support for body or to hold clothings in a bathroom or ...

s allow a multitude of visitors to enjoy safely the wonders of the grotto where the whole journey is accompanied by an experienced local guide.

Description

Geography

Maquiné finds itself facing north, with a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

shaped in the form of a shallow arch with width of approximately and height of only . The main direction of the cave is from north to south, being its greatest extent of . With an internal temperature ranging from , it is essentially horizontal, forming a continuous gallery with an average width of and height of . The main element of its formation is calcium carbonate, presenting also other minerals such as

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. Its galleries and halls, true architectural oddities, are the result of the formidable job of water in the persistence of millennia.

Morphology

The grotto features beautiful morphology due to its wide halls and aesthetic value due to their

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 on ...

atic beauty, in addition to its scientific value as it must have accommodated a considerable volume of water in the past. * First chamber, called "Vestibulo" ("Entrance Hall"), is fully illuminated by the natural light coming from the entrance of the cave. It measures in length, in width and contains numerous

stalagmite A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...

s that rise from the ground. The most distant of them are heaped in a single group that rises up to the upper dome, forming a back wall where two large blocks of

detach from the huge layer of the same mineral. * Second Chamber, called "Sala das Colunas" ("Room of Columns"), is long by width. Masses of stalagmites that rise up to the dome link this wall to that which separates the preceding chamber. Other masses have risen as the first, leaving only a descent. The layer of stalagmites here formed was punctured so that the nitrogenous component contained therein might be extracted. This layer contains a large quantity of small bones and teeth. * Third chamber, called "Altar" or "Trono" ("Altar", or "Throne"), is long, wide and high. A group of stalagmites which separates this chamber from the preceding one form a bouquet on both sides, creating a

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

arranged like an amphitheater in whose entry, a high figure resembling a bear on a pedestal is displayed. * Fourth chamber, called "Carneiro" ("Lamb"), measures long, wide and high. It distinguishes itself from all the other chambers mostly because the ground is covered with gypsum powder. Noticeable also in this room, besides the figure of a lamb, is the imposing figure of a gigantic mushroom. * Fifth chamber, called "Salão das Piscinas" ("Hall of Pools"), measuring in length and width and in height, forms the deepest part of the cave. In the center of this cavern is a large basin about deep whose walls are covered with delicate crystals of

fluorspar Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...

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 whe ...

. Large masses of stalagmites resembling ancient statues in a

Roman bath In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

adorn the opposite edges of the basin. * Sixth chamber, called "Salão das Fadas" ("Hall of the Fairies"), is long and high. In this room bones of large animals, including the remains of a

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

have been found. In the background of this chamber there is a passage to another room and a limpid cascade which has condensed itself into bright

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

. The whole chamber and all the figures existing in it are decorated with a delicate crust of crystals of calcium carbonate, sometimes of the purest white, sometimes differently colored. The splendid reflections produced by the light illuminating the many facets of this crystal, dazzle the eye of those who gaze at this imagery and with it, see themselves transported to a fairy-like palace. Dr. Lund said: "My eyes have never seen anything more beautiful and magnificent in the domains of nature and art." * Seventh chamber is divided into two parts. The first one is referred to as "Salão do Dr. Lund" ("Dr. Lund's Hall"), and is considered the most important of the chambers by the amount of bones that it contains. It is 42 meters long, 22 meters wide and 15 meters high. It leads downwards and forms many watersheds along the way. In the middle of the chamber there is a 60-centimeter-wide by 4.5-meter-deep coverage through which all excess of water is drained out of the cave. The second chamber is called "Salão do Cemitério" ("Cemetery Hall"), which is the largest of the chambers in the cave measuring 162.5 meters long by 56 meters wide. It is coated with a crumbly layer of

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

powder stalagmites which covers the ground, piling up to the ceiling.

Paleontology

Considered as the "cradle" of

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

in the country, the grotto was discovered in 1825 by farmer Joaquim Maria Maquiné, then the landowner. It is widely known for its paleontological importance detected initially by

Peter Claussen Peter Clausen (approximately 1801–1872), often misspelt as Peter Claussen, and also known as Pedro Claudio Clausen and Pedro Dinamarquez Clausen, was a Denmark, Danish natural history collector born in Copenhagen, who was known for his work betwee ...

and the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

naturalist

Peter Wilhelm Lund Peter Wilhelm Lund (14 June 1801 – 25 May 1880) was a Danish paleontologist, zoologist, and archeologist. He spent most of his life working and living in Brazil. He is considered the father of Brazilian paleontology as well as archaeology. He ...

who scientifically first explored it in 1834. Dr. Lund remained inside the cave nearly two years doing his research on the Brazilian paleontology, describing all the chambers, explaining the formation of

s and

stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...

s and examining human remains and petrifaction of animals from the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

period. Among others, he found fossilized skeletons of birds with an extraordinary curvature of up to three meters and the '' Nothrotherium maquinense'', the smallest and most emblematic of the terrestrial sloths which he found in 1835 when he first explored the cave. In 1868, after more than 30 years after the exploration of the cave, Lund wished to return to Cordisburgo and show the Duke of Saxe who visited the country, the natural beauty of this huge cave.

References

;Attribution * ''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the Portuguese Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the'
History
''section.''

External links

Cavernas do Brasil - Gruta de Maquiné
at Sociedade Brasileira de Espeleologia Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruta de Maquine Limestone caves Show caves in Brazil Caves of Minas Gerais Tourist attractions in Minas Gerais