Bozkov Dolomite Caves - visit
The cave tour passes through the most interesting and most beautiful parts of the spaces currently known about. Behind the entrance to New Caves the entrance corridor widens into a hall that is called a Chapel with a high ceiling. Its walls are covered with a varicoloured sinter coating dominated by the formation Petrified Eagle. Just a few steps further there is the Midnight Cave with the bluish lighting of ultraviolet lamps emphasizing veins of calcite and white sinters emerging from the cave walls. The next one, the Cave Beyond the Threshold, lies very near to the surface, so its decoration is probably buried under ruined rock blocks. The pavement then leads past the Moss Garden to the Crossing, where it continues by the Parallel Corridor with interesting modelling of the ceilings and by the Pirate’s Corridor where a quartz bench emerges in a spectacularly lighted cave called the Hell. Just behind it, the blue-greenish water of two Swan Lakes shines in the depth. Then you must go through the remarkably modelled corridor past inaccessible areas of Bethlehem to the Robber's Cave. The Muddy corridor then follows with a rock niche called the Bread Oven and with unusually coloured sinter formations on the walls. This is the last stop of the cave tour of NewCaves, which is characteristic especially for its unique formations of quartz laths, benches and reticular structures.
From the crossing of corridors the Crossing, a 50 m long artificial tunnel leads to s.c. Old Caves. In its niches there are entrances to shaft-like areas of the Windy Cave that are not open to the publicand a spy-hole to the cavern with remains of original timbering. This is also the place where the first explorers got into the cave.
The Old Bozkov Caves form the upper floor of the cave system. Right at the beginning your attention is attracted by an outstanding sinter block with the stalagmite called the Prussian Helmet. In its bottom part there is a piece of stalactite curtain covered by sinter, which was broken off the ceiling at one point – probably during orogenic processes. Past the Labyrinth, a labyrinth of huge ruined rock blocks through which the journey of the first discoverers led, the pavement turns to the cave called the Surprise. Its rich stalactite and stalagmite decoration in the middle of dolomite walls was a real unexpected surprise both for discoverers and geologists. A line of stalactites on the front wall forms s.c. Bozkov Organ. Below, in the foreground, the stalagmites called Thumb and Index Finger stand. On the ceiling you can see several helictites, eccentric stalactites growing against the laws of gravity. The largest one is called the Small White Mouse. In the following November Corridor, a sinterfall “flows” out of the wall and also a column that resembles a rocket cannot be overlooked. In an inconspicuous side passage you can admire a unique formation concisely called Elephant Ears. A yellowish light penetrating through this spacious but thin sinter curtain together with various stalactite and stalagmite decoration give this place an enchanting atmosphere. The route of the guided tour in Staré jeskyně (Old Caves) ends past the stalagmites Rococo Dolls and the Gingerbread House.
The impressive finale of the tour through the Bozkov Caves is the Lake Dome with the largest underground lake in Bohemia. The rock walls of the dome together with low ceilings of Kukla Spaces are mirrored in the blue-greenish surface of crystal-clear water filling the largest space of the caves known today. The area of the lake is 14 x 24 metres, the average depth 140 cm and the water temperature fluctuates at around 8 °C. The last area of the guided tour – the Youth Dome – is connected to the lake surface. The deepest cave spaces that were reached lie under it. However, they are fully flooded under the normal water level.
