Solomennaya Cave

Solomennaya Cave (the "Straw Cave") is a karst cave in the Katav-Ivanovsky District of Chelyabinsk Oblast, in the Sim River valley near the village of Serpievka. It is part of the Serpievka cave town, a group of caves along a stretch of the upper Sim about 15 km long, and has been a regional natural monument since 1987. The cave is named after its "straws", thin hollow stalactites.

History

The entrance opened in 1967 during mining in the side of a gravel quarry that has since been abandoned. It lies about 8 m above the Sim and is an artificial vertical shaft lined with a log frame, which leads down into a sloping crevice. The cave belongs to the Karatau district of the Cis-Ural karst province.

What to see in Solomennaya Cave

The cave formed along intersecting tectonic fissures running northwest and northeast. It is a system of halls and galleries about 1,068 m long and up to 18 m deep.

• The L-shaped first hall: in its eastern part a long grotto with yellow and red coralloids on the walls and calcite crystal crusts on the floor; in the centre the ceiling drops to meet columns.
• The Z-shaped second hall, its ceiling and floor densely covered with stalactites and stalagmites of many colours.
• The central section, with narrow passages, rockfalls and a clay floor, hard going.
• The second Rockfall Hall and the gallery to the Lake Hall, where a permanent lake is ringed by helictites, stalactites and stalagmites.

The walls are black or dark grey: the thin-bedded Silurian limestone is rich in iron, copper and sulphur. Near the entrance there are oolitic phosphorites and clusters of pyrite and chalcopyrite. Some formations are transparent or red, and the "straws" reach a metre in length. In winter ice candles up to half a metre high grow in the cave.

There are two bodies of water: a seasonal one near the entrance and a permanent lake in the far part. Chemical analysis showed the lake water to be clear, odourless and tasteless, low in cyanides, chlorides and sulphates. The air in most halls stays at about +14 °C.

Good to know

• When rubbed or struck, the limestone gives off a smell of sulphur compounds. Staying underground for more than 8 hours risks poisoning: nausea, headache, muscle tremor and a drop in blood pressure.
• Visitors have already broken many formations, and the cave is losing its decoration. As a natural monument it is protected.

Getting there

Take a local train to Simskaya station, then a bus to the last stop in Serpievka. The entrance is in the side of the old quarry on the bank of the Sim.