Krubera Cave

Kruber's Cave, also Krubera Cave (Georgian: კრუბერის გამოქვაბული, romanized: k'ruberis gamokvabuli or კრუბერის ღრმული, k'ruberis ghrmuli; Abkhaz: Ӡоу Аҳаҧы, romanized: Źou Ah̦aṕy), also known as Voronya Cave (sometimes spelled Voronja Cave), is the deepest known cave on Earth. It is located in the Arabika Massif of the Gagra Range of the Western Caucasus, in the Gagra District of Abkhazia, a Russian-backed, separatist-occupied region of Georgia. The difference in elevation of the highest cave entrance (Arabika) and its deepest explored point is 2,199 ± 20 metres (7,215 ± 66 ft). It became the deepest known cave in the world in 2003 when the Ukrainian Speleological Association reached a depth of 1,910 m (6,270 ft). This exceeded the previous record, Lamprechtsofen in the Austrian Alps, by 80 metres (260 ft). In 2006, for the first time in the history of speleology, the Ukrainian Speleological Association expedition reached a depth greater than 2,000 m (6,600 ft), and explored the cave to −2,080 m (−6,824 ft). Ukrainian diver Gennadiy Samokhin extended the cave by diving in the terminal sump to 46-meter (151 ft) depth in 2007 and then to 52 m (171 ft) in 2012, setting successive world records of 2,191 m (7,188 ft) and 2,197 m (7,208 ft), respectively. In 2017 this title was taken by the Veryovkina Cave, but in 2024 the depth of Krubera Cave was reevaluated to the current record. Krubera Cave is one of the two known caves deeper than 2,000 metres, the other being Veryovkina Cave in the same mountain range.