Tetyukhinskaya Cave

Tetyukhinskaya Cave (Пещера Тетюхинская) lies in the Dalnegorsky municipal district of Primorsky Krai, near the town of Dalnegorsk. It is set in one of the scenic ravines on the right bank of the Inza River, a left tributary of the Tetyukhe River, close to the former Verkhny mine. The entrance is a small rock outcrop of Upper Triassic limestones, triangular in cross-section.

History

A new part of the cave was discovered in mid-2011. The last of the four shafts for which the cave is known was only dug out in March 2012. Clearing the clay siphon that ends the system was led by speleologist A. A. Tatarnikov: his team dug through thirteen meters of passage in ten days. At the same time, M. Tiunov carried out paleontological excavations in one of the cave's grottoes.

Inside the cave

Tetyukhinskaya Cave consists of four shafts connected by galleries. Its passages are estimated at roughly 350 to 450 meters long, with a depth of about 30 meters. Dripstone formations occur throughout the cave. The lower sections contain bat skeleton remains, and a small lake with clay banks lies at the end of the right branch of passages. Sediments at the bottom of one grotto are estimated to have accumulated over about 50,000 years.

Finds and legends

A skull and other bone remains of an ancient dog were found in the middle of the left shaft; radiocarbon analysis put their age at around 6,000 years. According to local residents and cavers, bones of an ancient rhinoceros were also found in the cave, though far less is documented about that find than about the dog remains.

Getting there

Tetyukhinskaya Cave is located near the town of Dalnegorsk, by the Inza River. Descending the shafts requires vertical caving gear: this is a technical cave rather than a sightseeing site, and without rope equipment it is not possible to go beyond the entrance grotto.