The Orda Cave

The United States may have won the space race but the Russians have just claimed a place equally as extraterrestrial…

The Orda Cave is one of the world’s longest underwater cave systems,...

08.27.12 | By: Ali Ruhfel

The United States may have won the space race but the Russians have just claimed a place equally as extraterrestrial…

The Orda Cave is one of the world’s longest underwater cave systems, extending more than 3 miles under Russia’s surface. Recently, a dive team led by the seemingly claustrophobia-immune Vitya Lyagushkin navigated through these serpentine pitch black tunnels to capture the splendor of the cave system and to raise awareness of its fragility. The project took over 6 months, and included more than 150 harrowing dives where divers were often guided back to the surface by nothing more than a flashlight and rope.

The channels of Orda are mostly composed of gypsum, a mineral only slightly stronger than chalk but can be as clear as water, and that is responsible for the wild features that we thought only existed in James Cameron’s imagination.

Though these pictures are incredibly cool, cave diving, and the isolationism, claustrophobia, and other scary isms and phobias that attend to it, is one activity we’re more than happy to leave off the bucket list.