Nadarska Cave

Some caves are lit, railed and handed to you. Nadarska is not. It hides in quiet country near the hamlets of Kremene and Nadartsi, and the only light inside is the one you carry in with you.

Behind the entrance two short galleries run barely fifty-five metres in all, yet the beam keeps finding more: stalactites crowding the ceiling, stalagmites pushing up from the floor, thick stalactone columns where the two have met, and draperies so fine they look poured rather than grown. Marble and patient water shaped every bit of it, over a stretch of time the mind can hardly hold.

There are no lights and no laid paths, so you go in only with a guide, who brings both the gear and the way. The cave was first explored in 1975 by the Studenets caving club from Chepelare, led by Dimitar Raychev. It is a short climb up through the forest to the mouth of the cave, where the entrance opens on a view toward Mount Kom.