Bellamar Caves are a National Monument that is located in Matanzas, Cuba, they are a set of cave with more than 23 kilometers of galleries. By the beauty of its gallery and caves, they were declared a National Monument. The galleries and passages of the cave started forming about 300 thousand years ago. According to the studies the caves were originally under the sea, part of the bat of Matanzas. While they were under sea level, these caves were full of water. The tectonic movements caused the area to rise, until it became marine terraces are noticed in the city of Matanzas and its surroundings.
With the pass of the time these caves were drying up, but some pockets that are deep under the sea level they began to leak between the rocks, on the roof of the caves water with dissolved carbonate lime were leaving waste to leak occurred and thereby form stalactites from the ceiling and spikes on the floor. Bellamar Caves “were discovered by chance in February 1861″(Cuba Family), when a slave lost his jimmy open a hole in the ground, trying to remove a lime rock.
Don Manuel Santos Parga, owner of the farm asked for explanations and receiving no response addressed the scene, ordered to be dug there; and hardly it had he opened a space of just over a rod out of the hole practiced a stream of air disgusting smell; as hot and smoky; then so it was revealed the entrance to the cave. He realized what the discovery meant and began to prepare the cave for visitors could enjoy it. They took many stones; they made concrete stairs that are still in use; they installed handrails; and as soon it was a reality, installed electricity.
He or one of the guides under his employment had to tourists by the passageways of the cave while explaining what they were seeing. In the first two years over two thousand people visited. In those days it was a both tourist resounding success as a scientist. “Bellamar Caves included among the most impressive in the world, is one of the many attractions in the Matanzas province, 100 kilometers east of Havana. “(Cuba family). In the main hall is the rock formation known as Manto de Colon. This is the largest and oldest presented in a cascade and has a height of 12 meters.
Divided into four sectors, galleries and halls are lined with stalactites, stalagmites and helicities, the latter of whimsical horizontal forms. Designed by nature and by man baptized, tunnel of love are, the chapel of the 12 apostles, the Devil’s Throat, the passage of rain, the Salon de las Nieves and San Pedro temples and Gothic. These caves have a rare beauty in the world of caves because many of the formations are resplendent due to the crystal layer that covers them. In the Caves of Bellamar the entrance of the cavity is called Gothic Room, a chamber in a grid-measuring about 80 meters long by 25 meters wide.
In the Gothic hall, it has given name to some of the formations; among other is The Garden of carrots, Chapel of the Twelve Apostles, and the famous Dona Mamerta Manto de Colon. But the Bellamar Caves are not only this room, the cavity extends east and west achieving a length exceeding three kilometers long; and it is known to be much larger, with even completely flooded chambers. Other cavities are the Hall of Dos Lagos, the Hall of the Sponges, Dwarf Gallery and the Gallery of Megalocnus east of the Gothic Hall. In the other direction are the passage of Hatuey, the Ladies Room, Lake Dahlias and Bath American.
On the latter there is a legend that an American vacationer, many years ago, was lost in that place, when he decided to refresh your body in the clear and cold waters. “They also highlight the Hall of the sponges, a gallery located 25 meters below the Gothic Hall” (Cuba Family). According to scientists is one cave with several rooms, but the custom is in the plural. The breathable air is there, at least where he was allowed to get to the visitor.
The temperature is relatively stable throughout the year, remaining at 26. The Caves are also onsidered as a potential laboratory for the study of the underground crystallography, particularly those derived from calcium carbonate, found in their galleries by a broad representation of crystalline forms of unique beauty. Antique galleries and allowed levels serve as a refuge for the quaternary fauna of the region, a fact confirmed by the finding in the excavation of remains of prehistoric animals, also located in the area of the larger cavity of phreatic origin of Cuba. The new findings in a segment of Bellamar Cave System, distinguished National Monument.
In the centennial cave a group of cavers discovered a narrow cavity that led to another underground extension of about nine kilometers long. To everyone’s surprise, they found there galleries of incomparable beauty. It is cylindrical outstanding stalactites, and suspended in the air, at the ends hang a cluster of crystals beds. Because of its size and rarity experts believe the discovery as unique and incomparable gem with no other finding of its kind. They are indescribable formations, because in no other place on earth like calcium carbonate crystal is known.
The explorations continued by the caving group Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente, they appeared other paleontological discoveries of significant scientific interest, as the remains of terrestrial vertebrates and birds whose age the estimated million years. Specialized entities account the length and breadth of the island more than 10 000 caves, many of which are 25 million years of evolution, but to this day the Caves of Bellamar remains the queen, Cuba’s oldest resort, National Monument, favorite of all who visit.
