Ilyukhina
FAQFrequently asked questions
What is the Ilyukhin cave and where is it?
This is a large karst cave system on the Arabica massif (Hagra Range, Abkhazia/Georgia). It is about 1,286 meters deep and almost 9 kilometers long - that is, it is not the kind of cave you enter for half an hour with a flashlight.
How deep is it?
About 1286 meters vertically. For scale: this is one of the deepest caves in the world, although there are deeper neighbors on Arabica itself - Kruber and Veryovkin, which dive 2 kilometers away.
How to get there and who goes there?
The entrance is at an altitude of about 2,369 meters on the Arabica massif, so you have to climb the mountains first. Only trained speleologists with equipment descend inside - this is a serious underground route, not a tourist excursion.
Where does this name come from?
The system is named after Volodymyr Ilyukhin, a famous Soviet speleologist. The cave was opened and began to be explored in 1980 - a significant part of the difficult pioneering work was done by Russian and Ukrainian speleologists.
When is the best time to plan a visit?
The underground temperature is stable all year round, so the main question is how to approach the entrance high in the mountains. The warm season from the end of spring to the beginning of autumn is the most convenient for the approach; in winter, the massif is covered with snow.
