The Blauhöhle is the largest

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

system in the Swabian Alps in southern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The Blauhöhle presumably originated in a time when the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

still flowed through the Blau valley. Since the shifting of the Danube, several small rivers, the

Schmiech Schmiech is a small river in the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its source is a karst spring. It flows into the Danube in Ehingen. See also *List of rivers of Baden-Württemberg A list of rivers of Baden-Württemberg, Germany: A ...

, the Ach, and the Blau, have flowed through this valley. The cave system begins about 21 meters under water at the base of the

Blautopf The Blautopf (German for ''Blue pot'') is a spring that serves as the source of the river Blau in the karst landscape on the Swabian Jura's southern edge. It is located in Blaubeuren, Alb-Donau-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (approximately w ...

. It continues west and northwest, rising and falling several times until after a horizontal distance of about it comes above the level of

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

and opens into the second big air-filled chamber. The maximum depth of the cave under water is . This chamber was first discovered in 1985 by

Jochen Hasenmayer Jochen Hasenmayer (born 28 October 1941 in Pforzheim, Germany) is a German speleologist and cave diver from Birkenfeld in Baden-Württemberg, whose spectacular dives have frequently made headlines. Cave diving Hasenmayer began his cave divin ...

, who named it ''Mörikedom'' (Mörike Cathedral, named after Eduard Mörike). Hasenmayer's diving accident in the

Wolfgangsee Lake Wolfgang (german: Wolfgangsee) is a lake in Austria that lies mostly within the state of Salzburg and is one of the best known lakes in the Salzkammergut resort region. The municipalities on its shore are Strobl, St. Gilgen with the villages ...

resulted in a long break in its exploration. For several years the cave has been explored by the ''Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blautopf'' (Blautopf Study Group, or Consortium), a team of cave divers from several different regional groups. This group has made progress exploring the cave, including making exact measurements of the way to the ''Mörikedom''. The improvement of underwater breathing technology, especially the

rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's breathing, exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. ...

, has allowed for longer dives carrying less weight. The discovery of the ''Wolkenschloss'' (Castle of Clouds), another large, air-filled cavern, and the so-called ''Landweg'' (land-way), a long, open cave

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

behind the Mörikedom, were great successes for the ''Arbeitsgemeinschaft''. Hasenmayer continued his attempts to explore the cave system in his cave submarine, '' Speleonaut''. Since 2002 the ''Arbeitsgemeinschaft Höhle und Karst Grabenstetten'' (Cave and Karst Consortium of Grabenstetten), as a part of their work on a neighboring cave system, the ''Vetterhöhle'', have attempted to dig a dry entrance into the Blauhöhle. In 2006 several large caverns were discovered in the ''Vetterhöhle'', and in the autumn a connection was discovered between the ''Vetterhöhle'' and the ''Wolkenschloss''. Also in the autumn of 2006, the ''Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blautopf'' discovered an enormous cavern at the end of the Landweg, measuring long by wide by 50 m high, which was named ''Apokalypse''. The groups are now also working with yet another Arbeitsgemeinschaft on a

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

north of

Blaubeuren Blaubeuren () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau near Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. it had 11,963 inhabitants. Geography Geographical location The core city Blaubeuren lies at the foot of the Swabian Jura, west of Ulm. Neighborin ...

, which is believed to be connected with the Blauhöhle behind the ''Apokalypse''.

References

External links

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Tourist Information page of the nearby city of Blaubeuren
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Homepage of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blautopf
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Results of diving explorations in the Blauhöhle with cave map
*

*
Presentation of research in the Hessenhaudoline
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Press release about the discovery of the connection between the Blauhöhle and Vetterhöhle

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blauhohle Caves of Germany Karst caves Landforms of Baden-Württemberg Wild caves