World’s Largest Cave Is So Big It Has Its Own Weather System — Even Skyscrapers Can Fit Into It

Located inside the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in the Quang Binh Province, the leviathan cave cradles a whole universe within it; as they say, it’s a “world within a world.” As the rolling fog escapes through the window-like dolines, it flits through the darkness to hover above the vast network of underground rivers, subglacial lakes, rimstone pools, and lemongrass sauna. The cave is spacious enough to house multiple 40-storey skyscrapers. 

When travellers like Liana begin their exploratory adventure in the cave, they start with an arduous hike through the muddy, slippery trails snaking through a forest. Collapsed ceilings cradle full-grown foliage that outspreads to form jungles and rainforests within the cavern. In a documentary-style video log, photographer Christopher Balladarez (@ChristopherBalladarez), described the cave as “unlike anything in the world” he had ever seen before. Balladarez had booked a four-day tour inside the cave. His Canon C80 captured the surrealistic beauty that emerged all around him. The cave, he said, is a place “where time itself feels lost.”

According to Outlook Traveller Magazine, the cave was discovered in 1991 by a jungle man named Hồ Khanh. Khanh was wandering through the area in search of a valuable timber called agarwood. A fierce storm erupted, and howling winds forced him to take shelter inside the cave. As he stood, he noticed clouds billowing through an opening. His ears were pounding with the sounds of roaring waters. He fled away, and the entire episode was forgotten. Years later, two members of the British Cave Research Association (BCRA) exploring the local area came across him, and he blurted out the memory. 

Surreal Footage Shows an Explorer Walking Into a Glacier’s Ice Cave on Top of a Volcano

Explorers Dropped a GoPro Into America’s Deepest Pit — And What They Captured Is Pure Horror

Explorer Reveals What the Insides of a Glacier Sound Like — It’s Unlike Anything We’ve Heard