Boybuloq Cave is a limestone cave in Uzbekistan which has the greatest depth of any known cave in Asia. Because of its elevation in the Gissar Range, near Uzbekistan's highest village, the cave and surrounding area are inaccessible much of the year due to snow. The cave contains fossilized dinosaur footprints, and the upper entrance has long been frequented by locals accessing a nearby spring. It was first explored by speleologists in 1984, and subsequent expeditions have mapped of passages, plumbing a total depth of. The cave could connect with nearby Vishnevsky Cave, and extend much deeper and become the deepest cave in the world.
Description
Boybuloq Cave is located around from the town of Boysun in the Gissar Range of mountains. It lies above Dehibolo, Uzbekistan's highest village, with the cave entrance located above sea level. Owing to its remote location the area is inaccessible from late January to mid April due to snow. It is the deepest known cave in Asia having been explored to a depth of from the entrance. At the lowest discovered level a water-filled siphon currently blocks further exploration. It is thought that it has the potential to be the deepest known cave in the world, with a theorised depth of making it deeper than the Veryovkina Cave. The explored length of the cave is.
History
The cave entrance has been known to locals for a long time as a water spring is nearby. It was entered by a local carpenter in 1971 who was looking for water during a period of drought. He did not return and remained missing despite searches by local people. Speleologists entered the cave in 1984 and the next year Russian explorers discovered and returned the body of the carpenter. Some 14 expeditions were made over the next few years by the Russians with some involvement from Italian speleologists and the full depth of was reached by 1992. Expeditions resumed in 2007 and a 25-man joint Russian-French-Swiss series of expeditions was carried out from 2018. One key focus of the expeditions, which will continue in 2019, was to search for a connection to the nearby Vishnevsky Cave, the second deepest cave in the area. The 2018 expeditions mapped more than of new passages in the caves and discovered several promising leads for new explorations. A series of dinosaur footprints were also discovered near the Boybuloq Cave entrance by a team from the Yekaterinburg Caving Club and explorations of the Vishnevsky Cave reached a new depth of.
