Hwanseon Cave (환선굴) is a cave located in Gangwon province,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Description

Hwanseon Cave is the longest limestone cave in Korea, with of known passages and a total suspected length of , of which are visited by over 1 million people per year. In 1966 the South Korea government designated this cave and a neighboring cave not open to the public, Gwaneum cave (관음굴), National Monument 178. Hwanseongul was opened to the public in 1997. Situated in a rugged

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

range near the city of

Samcheok Samcheok () is a city in Gangwon-do, South Korea. History Ancient age & Three Kingdom * It was called "Siljikguk or Siljikgokguk" * 102 under the rule of Silla ( Pasa 23rd) * 468 under the rule of Goguryeo (Jangsu 56th) * 505 The name changed t ...

, the cave's tall entrance is a grueling 30 to 45 minute uphill hike from the ticket office, although it is also serviced by a monorail which takes 6 minutes. Once inside, the temperature varies between . The walls spout water from innumerable cracks and seeps, which join to make good-sized streams, waterfalls and ten large pools. Some rooms in the cave are vast, tall, and bridges have been built across chasms in them. The usual fanciful names have been given to the various formations, but the high rate of water flow has prevented the building up of many

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 or

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. Flowstones, rimstones, popcorn, pipes and curtains are more abundant. 47 species of wildlife have been recorded in the cave, including the lungless Korean clawed salamander ''

Onychodactylus fischeri ''Onychodactylus fischeri'' is a lungless salamander found in Northeast Asia. It ranges through northeastern China, the Russian Far East, and the Korean Peninsula, but is only sporadically distributed within this range. Within South Korea ...

'', the spider '' Allomengea coreana'', the

cave cricket The orthopteran family Rhaphidophoridae of the suborder Ensifera has a worldwide distribution. Common names for these insects include cave wētā, cave crickets, camelback crickets, camel crickets, Hogan bugs, spider crickets (sometimes shortene ...

'' Diestrammena asynamora'', the

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

s '' Epanerchodus kimi'' and '' Antrokoreana gracilipes'', the moth ''

Apopestes indica ''Apopestes'' is a genus of moths in the family Erebidae The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromo ...

'', and a species of

amphipod Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...

in the genus '' Pseudocrangonyx''. Four species are unique to Hwanseon Cave, including the beetle ''

Kurasawatrechus latior ''Kurasawatrechus'' is a genus in the beetle family Carabidae Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Euro ...

''. The cave is open year-round, and the self-guided tour costs

₩ The won sign , is a currency symbol. It represents the South Korean won, the North Korean won and, unofficially, the old Korean won. Appearance Its appearance is "W" (the first letter of "Won") with a horizontal strike going through the cen ...

4000, about $4, and takes about an hour to traverse on steel catwalks, not including the long, climb to and from the entrance.

References

External links

Visit Korea profile
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720152236/http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264551 , date=2011-07-20 Caves of South Korea Show caves in South Korea Landforms of Gangwon Province, South Korea Tourist attractions in Gangwon Province, South Korea