Weaver Cave ()—also known as Vaulted Cave (), Škocjan Cave (), and Inlet Cave ()—is a long ponor cave in southwest

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. It runs from the west (downstream) side of the Rak Škocjan Valley, where it has two entrances, and continues into Planina Cave. It is traversed by

Rak Creek The Rak is a stream in Inner Carniola, a traditional region of southeastern Slovenia. It sources in Zelše Caves () west of the village of Zelše, flows across the Rak Škocjan karst valley for and enters Weaver's Cave (), where it continu ...

, part of the

Ljubljanica The Ljubljanica (), known in the Middle Ages as the ''Leybach'', is a river in the southern part of the Ljubljana Basin in Slovenia. The capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, lies on the river. The Ljubljanica rises south of the town of Vrhnika and ...

source system. It thus forms part of the hydrological connection between

Cerknica Polje Lake Cerknica (; ) is an intermittent lake in the southern part of the Cerknica Polje, a karst polje in Inner Carniola, a region in southwestern Slovenia. Description The lake, oriented in the Dinaric Alps, Dinaric direction from north-west to s ...

and

Planina Polje Planina may refer to: In Croatia: * Planina Donja, a village near Zagreb * Planina Gornja, a village near Zagreb * Planina Skradska, a village near Skrad In Serbia: * Planina (Krupanj), a settlement in the Municipality of Krupanj In Slovenia ...

. Due to sumps, the stream of the Rak is very difficult to follow and was explored by divers only in 1974, when the majority of the cave was discovered in the course of a rescue expedition, and in August 2012. The cave was named after a

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 ...

reminiscent of a weaver. An old story says that he was turned to stone because he worked on Sunday, the

Lord's Day In Christianity, the Lord's Day refers to Sunday, the traditional day of communal worship. It is the first day of the week in the Hebrew calendar and traditional Christian calendars. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the ...

. The first description of Weaver Cave was published in 1687 by

Johann Weikhard von Valvasor Johann Weikhard Freiherr von Valvasor or Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor (, ) or simply Valvasor (baptised on 28 May 1641 – September or October 1693) was a natural historian and polymath from Carniola, present-day Slovenia, and a Li ...

in the ''

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the second journ ...

''. He also published an engraving of it. The cave has also been depicted by other artists, including Franz Goldenstein (1808–1878) in the 1850s. His painting of the Great Natural Bridge of Rak Škocjan as seen from the inside of the cave is on display in the National Gallery of Slovenia. Carrying the entire runoff of the Rak River out of the

Rak Škocjan Rak Škocjan (; ) is a valley and a landscape park (protected area), landscape park, part of Inner Carniola Regional Park in southwestern Slovenia. Administratively, it belongs to the settlement of Rakov Škocjan, Cerknica, Rakov Škocjan. Rak � ...

karst window, Weaver Cave functions as the terminal

ponor A ponor is a natural opening where surface water enters into underground passages; they may be found in Karst topography, karst landscapes where the geology and the geomorphology is typically dominated by porous limestone rock. Ponors can drain s ...

of a 37 km²

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

that links

Lake Cerknica Lake Cerknica (; ) is an intermittent lake in the southern part of the Cerknica Polje, a karst polje in Inner Carniola, a region in southwestern Slovenia. Description The lake, oriented in the Dinaric direction from north-west to south-east, ...

to the Unica springs at Planina

Polje A polje, also called karst polje or karst field, is a large flat plain found in karstic geological regions of the world, with areas usually in the range of 5–400 km2 (2–154 sq mi). The name derives from the Slavic languages, ...

. Dye tracer tests and in-cave hydrometric logging confirm that nearly all water entering the cave resurges 2.8 km downstream in Planina Cave, establishing Weaver Cave as the critical choke-point in the Cerknica–Planina

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

circuit. A metre-wide constriction 450 m from the entrance throttles flood discharge; when prolonged rain coincides with

snowmelt In hydrology, snowmelt is surface runoff produced from melting snow. It can also be used to describe the period or season during which such runoff is produced. Water produced by snowmelt is an important part of the annual water cycle in many part ...

, the restriction backs up water, submerging the valley floor and lifting flood marks up to 19 m above the cave lip—one of the highest karst back-flood signatures recorded in the Dinaric belt. These hydraulics explain why rescue divers who first negotiated the sump network in 1974 found fresh sand banks tens of metres above normal flow and why modern monitoring treats Weaver Cave as the barometer for flood risk in Rak Škocjan.

Gallery

Tkalca jama 01.jpg, Lower (main) entry Tkalca jama 02.jpg, Upper (secondary) entry

References

External links

*
Weaver Cave
Statistical information. Cave E-Cadastre.

Virtual panorama (surround photography) in front of the main entrance. Burger.si. (Rich media - may be viewed with

QuickTime QuickTime (or QuickTime Player) is an extensible multimedia architecture created by Apple, which supports playing, streaming, encoding, and transcoding a variety of digital media formats. The term ''QuickTime'' also refers to the QuickTime Pla ...

). {{coord, 45, 47, 36.35, N, 14, 17, 11.66, E, region:SI_type:landmark, display=title Caves of Inner Carniola Ljubljanica basin Municipality of Cerknica Articles containing video clips

Gallery

See also

References

External links