Witches' Cave
The Witches' Cave is a cave, a nature reserve and a national natural monument in Argentina. It is located in the Moncol Hill, at above mean sea level, within the Malargüe Department, in the south of Mendoza Province, about southwest of the town of Malargüe.
The cave covers an area of and was declared a provincial reserve in 1990. It is a solutional limestone cave, formed by Jurassic sedimentary rock that rose from the ocean as the Andes emerged during the Cenozoic Era. The rock was eroded by underground water currents and vertically fractured. Further erosion occurred at the end of the last Ice Age, when precipitation was much higher than today.
The Witches' Cave is home to many peculiar speleothems, deep underground water galleries, and large vaulted spaces called Sala de la Virgen and Las Flores. It hosts a particular fauna adapted to live without solar radiation. The galleries closest to the entrance are occasional shelters for bats and mice.
About of the cave's passages have been explored. The site is one of the major tourist attractions in southern Mendoza, but visitors are only granted access to the first of galleries, which are already damaged.
