Topolnița Cave () is a karst cave located in

Mehedinți County Mehedinți County () is a county () of Romania on the border with Serbia and Bulgaria. It is mostly located in the historical province of Oltenia, with one municipality (Orșova) and three communes (Dubova, Mehedinți, Dubova, Eșelnița, and Svi ...

, Romania. It is the fourth-longest cave in Romania: only

Peștera Vântului Peștera Vântului (Wind Cave) is the largest cave in Romania, with a length of almost 52 km (total length of passages). It is situated in the Pădurea Craiului Mountains on the left bank of Crișul Repede River in the vicinity of Șuncuiuș ...

, Humpleu-Poienița Cave, and Hodobana Cave are longer. Most speleological sources estimate its length at , although a length of has also been reported. Some Romanian news sources report a more conservative . It is considered a

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities, or cultural significance. They can be natural geological and geographical features such as w ...

of Romania. The cave was first historically documented in 1880 by V. Dumitrescu. The first serious attempt at scientific exploration was made in 1956 by Sever Popescu of

Turnu Severin Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. It is one of six Romanian county seats lying on the river Danube. "Drobeta" is the name ...

. Finally, specialists from the Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology at the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...

began true systematic exploration in 1962.

Description

Topolnița Cave is located at from

Drobeta-Turnu Severin Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. It is one of six Romanian county seats List of cities and towns on the river Danube, lyin ...

, between the villages of Marga and Cireșu. It has at least four entrances. The cave's primary entrance is in the central part of the Mehedinți Plateau, where the Topolnița River plunges down into the earth. The river later emerges farther downstream at the foot of a hill. Topolnița Cave has a huge number of passages and galleries arranged over five floors, many of which have attracted fanciful names as a result of the

speleothem A speleothem (; ) is a geological formation made 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, depen ...

s that have formed in them. One of the largest galleries, at long, is named the Racoviță Gallery in honor of

Emil Racoviță Emil Gheorghe Racoviță (; 15 November 1868 – 19 November 1947) was a Romanian biologist, zoologist, speleologist, and Antarctic explorer. Together with Grigore Antipa, he was one of the most noted promoters of natural sciences in Ro ...

, a noted Romanian explorer. Approximately from the entrance is the Bat's Gallery, containing a bat colony and a large

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

heap. Other features within the cave include lakes, waterfalls, rapids, and massive forests of

stalactite A stalactite (, ; , ) 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 and that can be deposited as a colloid, or is in suspension (chemistry ...

s and

stalagmite A stalagmite (, ; ; ) 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 composed of calcium carbonate, but may consist ...

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

remains have also been found within the cave.

Cave access

Best described as "

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...

ine", Topolnița Cave is a difficult cave to explore even for experienced cavers. Access for tourists is permitted only once per year, on a feast day in August, where guides lead tours into the cave to view the Racoviță Gallery. Otherwise, the cave is gated and access is only available by permission of the

. In the 1980s, there was some government interest in adding tourist-access features such as stairs, railings, and electric lights, but funding fell through before the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

and nothing was completed.

Fauna

The cave's temperature hovers between , making it a relatively warm cave. As a result, it is a suitable habitat for some fauna, including the largest colony of

greater horseshoe bat The greater horseshoe bat (''Rhinolophus ferrumequinum'') is an Insectivore, insectivorous bat of the genus ''Rhinolophus''. Its distribution covers Europe, Northern Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Asia. It is the largest of the horseshoe bats i ...

s in Europe. A 2015 survey conducted as part of an effort to protect Romania's bats found 7,482 individual horseshoe bats living in the cave. The colony in the Bat's Gallery is mainly composed of

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores we ...

Mediterranean horseshoe bats, Daubenton's bats, and long-fingered bats.

Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

has shown that the bat guano from that colony has been continuously deposited since 1694. In 2009, a pair of

bearded vulture The bearded vulture (''Gypaetus barbatus''), also known as the lammergeier and ossifrage, is a very large bird of prey in the Monotypic taxon, monotypic genus ''Gypaetus''. The bearded vulture is the only known vertebrate whose diet consists of ...

s was spotted at the cave by hunters. The sighting was treated with some excitement, as the bearded vulture is no longer extant in Romania. Plenty of

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

species live in or around Topolnița Cave. Specimens of

Clausiliidae Clausiliidae, also known by the common name door snails, is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small, very elongate, mostly Gastropod shell#Chirality in gastropods, left-handed, air-breathing land snails, sinistral terre ...

, or door snails, such as '' Macedonica marginata'', have been found in the cave. A number of species of

Opiliones The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an Order (biology), order of arachnids, Common name, colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs (see below). , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered w ...

, colloquially known as harvestmen, have been recorded.Ilie, Victoria. "A check-list of the harvestmen (Opilionida) from the Romanian caves." ''Archives of Biological Sciences'' 54.1–2 (2002): 49–55. Vi
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References

{{Authority control Caves of Romania Geography of Mehedinți County Wild caves Bat roosts