Hidden deep in the Trigrad Gorge in the Rhodope Mountains, is one of the most mysterious caves in Bulgaria – the Devil’s Throat.
It does not impress with exquisite rock formations since, geologically speaking, it is rather young, dating back only 175,000 years. But the secrets it hides are what is most compelling about this cave.
Since ancient times there have been tales of Orpheus descending into the underworld through this exact cave to search for his beloved Euredice. He convinced Hades to give her back with the one condition that on their way back to the surface Orpheus was forbidden to look at her. But a sudden rumble drowned out Euridice’s steps and Orpheus quickly forgot his vow and turned to make sure he hadn’t lost her again. He reached for her but her shadow slowly began to fade. Feeling nothing but despair, Orpheus wept for seven days, his tears creating a spring in the cave.
It is believed that this happened in the “Booming Hall”, named after the deafening rumble from the waterfall inside the cave. It is the second largest cave hall in Bulgaria and an entire two-story building can fit inside. The spring, allegedly created from the tears of Orpheus also exists. According to the myth, its waters are healing and wishes come true here.
Horrors of Black Devil’s Cave
If you look closely above the spring, you can see the figure of Virgin Mary and tour guides will gladly show you two more interesting reliefs – a devil’s head, carved near the entrance, and a life-sized figure of a man. The natural entrance of the cave also resembles a devil’s head and it is used as an exit. The Devil’s Throat cave is also the home of the highest underground waterfall of the Balkan Peninsula. It is 42 meters (138 feet) high and is the main reason for the formation of the cave.
The most impressive fact about the Devil’s Throat cave is that anything that falls into its waters is lost in a 150-meter-long (492 feet) tunnel. There have been numerous attempts to figure out this mysterious water labyrinth, but none successful. In 1970, one such attempt led to the death of two scuba divers, whose bodies were never found.
The Hand Carved Longyou Caves Mystery
Researchers are now artificially coloring the water to see if it is the same river flows from the cave’s exit. They were surprised to find out that the colored water did in fact come from the exit but more than an hour later. It is determined that there is a huge labyrinth under the cave where objects ended up in the waters get lost forever.
To exit the Devil’s Cave you must climb 301 steep steps almost touching the rumbling waterfall. At the exit you will feel as if you just climbed a...
Read moreThe organization is for a tourist place like this one, very bad. We arrived and did not know what was going on A group of people went inside and confused we followed them into the cave. (No sings and everything that's around you is in Bulgarian). The guide kept talking and talking and talking in Bulgarian. We decided to go back outside because it was very boring to listen to his blabbing. We asked somebody if it was free or you needed to pay and how the system was working. (We just heard stories about this place and drove here without any knowledge) The guy pointed to a kassa who was situated above the road. Not really intuitive, because again, no sings, and we did not see this from down. We went to the lady (who could not speak English) and with a lot of effort she gave us a paper with information about the cave and the legends. First, the paper was printed, but the last words at the end of the paper seem to have disappeared, so in order to read this, you need to have some imagination. Second, the tours were every hour and only in Bulgarian. For such a famous place like this one, I think this is prehistoric. The tours were an hour, and our experience taught us that we needed to listen to the guys blabbing for an hour, with a little time to see the cave. It's not worth the 16leva per person and our time in our opinion. We asked if we could go alone in the cave. And she shaked her had, no. We left the place and decided to go to the town Trigrad, to do a little hike and go to the top of the "Orpheus peak". From my experience, I recommend this little hike more than the cave. The views are amazing.
Please, people, fix your organization. It is not that hard. We were willing to pay to see the cave, but not to waste our time with this...
Read moreThe cave: Didn't really live up to our expectations. It's basically one big space, with incredibly steep steps and... That's it. The tour guide was with us the first 5 mins and left us to go ahead. The talk wasn't really anything special, just the legend and no information about what we will see inside, how old are the rocks, what type are there and etc. There isn't any wait time, just keep in mind that each enter will be at xx:00hr. So if u come at like 13:25, you will have to wait to 14:00 to enter The road: If u go from Velingrad, keep in mind the speed limits. At some point, you will find yourself in one lane road so drive cautiously. You can go with any type of car, except a sports one or lowered - there are some holes and you won't like it. 😃 The cave has a parking, a bar with hot/cold beverages and snacks and a short zipline (its above the parking, across of the ticket booth). The price to go in is 8lv, the zipline is 10lv. !Be aware! - the guide guy will tell u that u can head in and then up the steps or go back on the "walk of shame/disabled". The steps are very steep and kinda dangerous! There are 250+ steps up and if you are short like me, it will be even more of a challenge. The whole point of going that way is to see the waterfall, which is barely visible. At the exit, there is a guy selling souvenirs and an old lady selling honey (which is actually tasty and you can negotiate the price). The cave is not suitable for children...
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