Kungur Ice Cave (Russia, Kungur): description, facilities, schedule and reviews

To see this natural ice miracle, the Urals come from different corners not only of our country, but of the whole world. The largest Russian cave, equipped for visiting, has been known since ancient times, but excursions on it have been held since 1914. Its most part is hidden from the eyes of tourists, so as not to disturb the ecosystem.

Business card of the Urals

For a long time the Kungur ice cave has been recognized as the visiting card of the Urals. Where is this unique miracle of nature? It is located in the Kungursky district of the Perm region, at the very base of the Ice Mountain.

There are several stories connected with the local attraction. They say that Cossack ataman Yermak spent the winter in his cave before his campaign to Siberia. In addition, the crosses found in the grottoes and even a small crypt indicate that the Old Believers once lived here.

Kungur Ice Cave is a huge labyrinth, stretching for almost six thousand kilometers, with spacious halls decorated with ice crystals.

Exploring the cave

If you do not take into account the legend of Ermak, until now scientists can not say exactly who discovered the amazing miracle of nature. It is known that in 1703 a well-known researcher S. Remezov, after visiting Kungur, compiled a detailed plan for grottos. However, there was a lot of inaccuracies, which the academician I. Lepekhin tried to correct in 67 years, he examined a small part of the cave.

In 1879 an archaeological expedition led by I. Polyakov worked inside the labyrinths, and in the Soviet era the professor of the Perm University G. Maksimovich even published a work in which he examined in detail the halls of the cave and the various types of ice covering the grottoes. And to this day, research is being conducted and scientific articles on the current state of the object are published.

Protected landmark

Kungur Ice Cave is the oldest in the world. About 48 grottos and about 70 lakes located underground are located in the state-protected natural monument. According to scientists, the age of the Ural sightseeing reaches twelve thousand years. It was then that the global catastrophe led to the extinction of many animals on Earth.

Kungur Ice Cave: schedule of work

It is best to come here from February to April, when cave stalactites and stalagmites reach incredible sizes. For tourists laid a kilometer route, and the duration of the journey through the magical halls of frozen music from the ice is an hour and a half.

Group tours are organized every day without a weekend. From 10.00 to 17.00 the Kungur ice cave awaits all visitors, the prices for visiting which since the new year have increased and start from 300 and 600 rubles for children and adult tickets. For an individual tour of the grottoes will have to fork out for 1500 rubles.

Ice Palace

Everyone who visits the amazing halls of the cave for the first time, feel like fairy-tale heroes who suddenly found themselves in the magic world of the Snow Queen. Admired by the beauty of the interior, adults turn into small children and walk around the natural palace with a sinking heart.

Every year about 100 thousand people visit the Ural landmark. Excursions are conducted along two main routes, and tourists note that it is best to visit both. Each group is accompanied by a guide telling about interesting stories related to the cave, and tells about the main grottos.

Surprisingly, to this day the Kungur ice cave grows, which is always cold. In some grottoes the temperature drops to minus thirty degrees, the earlier the merchants used to store meat.

Routes and excursions

A large ring is the main route, laid along convenient concreted paths for visitors and well-lit. The most popular grottoes of the Kungur cave will not be left without attention.

But rarely visited halls, barely affected by civilization and poorly studied, are the Small Ring. Difficult passages along unsuccessful trails are not popular among the elderly, but are loved by young people. Often at the request of tourists, they are driven to the grottoes, lit only by candle lights, giving mystery. The most interesting route, which will not leave anyone indifferent, passes through the purest underground lakes.

Another innovation that visitors can use is to sign up for thematic excursions with the final laser show program. A stunning spectacle, in which icicles glisten in different colors, shimmering and flashing lights, will remain for a long time in memory.

New services

The Kungur Ice Cave, whose excursion schedule is incredibly convenient for all visitors, introduces new services - lovers will help organize a romantic date and even register a marriage in one of the ice halls.

For tourists who want to visit not only the cave, but also stay for a few days to view the ancient city of Kungur and its museum exhibits, inexpensive hotels located at the very foundation of the Ice Mountain, offer their services.

Diamond grotto

What awaits visitors inside the fairy-tale kingdom? Consider what objects of the Kungur Ice Cave will appear before visitors. Telling about all the grottoes is simply unrealistic, so let's focus on the most interesting.

The first grotto, which is meaningfully called Diamond, shimmers in the beams of the searchlights, like the cave of Ali Baba. Snow crystals, covering the walls and vault of the hall, burn with cheerful lights, and the severed passage to the next grotto overgrown with ice.

Polar Cave

The Polar hall of the Kungur cave once formed a single whole with Brilliantov. Now the admirable spacious cave is famous for the largest accumulation of calcareous outgrowths on the ceiling and the bottom of the grotto, which form an incredible beauty of education. Here, fantastically beautiful stalactites and stalagmites of various shapes intertwined, creating original fabulous compositions.

And in the niche of the Polar Grotto is hidden a column consisting of a monolith of ice and resembling a frozen waterfall.

The Grottoes of Dante and the Crypt

The journey through the icy realm continues, and before the gazes of astonished visitors the picturesque view of Dante's grotto, named for the stony chaos, depicting the picture of hell described by the poet, opens.

Following him, the Crypt begins, from which the forks of the Great and Lesser Routes pass. The name of the cave was obtained from a small house built of stones here, which was mentioned by many research expeditions. Later the shelter was destroyed, but the name remained.

Cross grotto

Next to the Crypt there is a new hall, in which they found the altar and icons left by the Old Believers. Scientists are sure that here the hermits were hiding from the pursuit of power.

The ruins of Pompeii

Grotto The ruins of Pompeii are a cave full of chaotic heaps of stone blocks, as if left after the eruption of an erupting volcano of an ancient city.

In the center of the disorder, arranged by nature itself, is a sculpture, highlighted by cave workers, whose outlines resemble a tortoise and a crocodile.

Seabed and Sculpture

Both children and adults will like the following grottos of the Kungur Ice Cave - the Sea Bottom and the Sculptural Cave. In the first imagination, the overgrown plaster formations, in which the figures of the inhabitants of the sea day are guessed, will hit. And in the center of the second tourists meets the Frog-Princess, made of stone.

The meteor grotto

A meteor grotto is known from the legend that in the total darkness of this cave, a person with an unclean conscience will see the outline of the lame Light caver, left here forever after the betrayal of a friend.

The huge searchlight goes out for a few minutes, plunging all visitors into absolute darkness.

Coral grotto

The coral cave will be remembered by fans of horror films, because in it the man-made profile of Count Dracula is guessed. And on a bright red background a bizarre silhouette of a huge rhinoceros without a tail turned out for many centuries by nature itself emerges.

Cognitive adventure: reviews

According to tourists, the Kungur ice cave is an amazing world of ice and cold. The stone chaos created by mother nature, and the ringing silence carry all visitors into an unreal world in which they begin to truly appreciate life.

After the end of an amazing adventure, a person realizes that he is just a grain of sand in a huge world, and his life is an instant compared to eternity.