| Veryovkina Cave | |
|---|---|
155 m [508 ft] deep Babatunda pit at −400 m [1312 ft], the largest shaft in the cave
| |
| Location | Abkhazia,[note 1] Georgia |
| Coordinates | 43°24′56″N 40°21′23″E / 43.41556°N 40.35639°E / 43.41556; 40.35639 |
| Depth | 2,223 metres (7,293 ft) |
| Length | 17,500 metres (57,400 ft) |
| Discovery | 1968 |
| Geology | Limestone |
 | |
Veryovkina Cave (also spelled Verëvkina Cave, Georgian: ვერიოვკინის მღვიმე, romanized: veriovk'inis mghvime, Abkhaz: Вериовкин иҳаԥы) is a cave in Abkhazia, internationally recognized as part of Georgia. At 2,223 meters (7,257 ft) deep, it is the deepest-known cave on Earth.[1][2] Veryovkina is in the Arabika Massif, in the Gagra mountain range of the Western Caucasus, on the pass between the Krepost[3] and Zont[4] mountains, close to the slopes of Mount Krepost. Its entrance is 2,285 metres (7,497 ft) above sea level.[5] The entrance of the cave has a cross section of 3 m × 4 m (9.8 ft × 13.1 ft), and the depth of the entrance shaft is 32 metres (105 ft).[6]
In 1968, the cave was assigned the name S-115, which was later replaced by P1-7, and in 1986 it was renamed after caver and cave diver Alexander Verëvkin. Verëvkin died in 1983 while exploring a siphon in the cave Su-Akan,[7] located in the Sary-Tala massif, now Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia.
During an expedition in 2021, PST found the body of a caver, who died exploring on his own, at −1,100 metres (−3,600 ft). He was later identified as Sergei Kozeev, who left his home in Sochi (Russia) on 1 November 2020 and began descent into Veryovkina, where he spent around a week at a −600 metres (−2,000 ft) permanent camp. Then he continued his descent down to technically challenging parts at −1,100 metres (−3,600 ft) where he got stuck due to inadequate equipment and skill, and died of hypothermia.[13] The body was eventually recovered after a complex retrieval operation on 17 August 2021.[14]
