Caves & Gorges Codexery

Veryovkina Cave

Veryovkina Cave: second deepest-known cave on Earth, at 2209 m depth in the Arabika Massif.

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Where it is

Street map of the area around Veryovkina Cave; the red dot marks 43°24′58″N 40°21′22″E
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Coordinates: 43°24′58″N 40°21′22″E (43.4160, 40.3560) · Open in OpenStreetMap

Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Veryovkina Cave (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.

Veryovkina Cave is located in Abkhazia, Georgia, within the Arabika Massif of the Western Caucasus.[1][2] As of 2025, the cave's measured depth stands at 2209 meters, which places it second in known depth globally, behind only Krubera Cave.[1][3]

Geography and history

The cave entrance sits at 2285 meters above sea level on the pass between the Krepost and Zont mountains.[2][3] The entrance shaft is 32 meters deep with a cross-section of 3 by 4 meters.[3] Veryovkin died in 1983 while exploring a siphon in Su-Akan cave in the Sary-Tala massif, now Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia.[4][5] He descended to −1100 meters, got stuck, and died of hypothermia because he lacked stirrups to climb out of wet sections.[6]

The body was recovered on 17 August 2021 after a complex operation.[6] The deceased caver was Sergei Kozeev; he departed from Sochi on 1 November 2020 and stayed roughly a week at a camp located 600 meters below the surface.[6]

What the cited sources add

The VK post by Evgeny Snetkov reports that the body was found hanging on two ascenders without stirrups, three meters from a ledge, in a camouflage suit and trekking boots.[7] A transport bag below the body contained two mobile phones in a dry bag and a multi-tool.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Veryovkina Cave" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: . Compiled by: Bob Gulden. October. 10, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Veryovkina Cave" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kovinov, "Поход по Арабике через перевалы Дзоу и Шу, 21–24 августа 2016"; "Гора Зонт" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Veryovkina Cave" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ljubimov, "ОТКРЫТИЕ И ИСТОРИЯ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ПЕЩЕРЫ им. А. Веревкина (1968–1986 г.)"; "The daring journey inside the world's deepest cave", BBC Reel; Baraszkow, "SpeleoClub Perowo News", vk.com/perovospeleo, 2024-09-20 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Veryovkina Cave" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "НЕСЧАСТНЫЕ СЛУЧАИ ПРИ ПОГРУЖЕНИЯХ В СИФОНЫ" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. "НЕСЧАСТНЫЕ СЛУЧАИ ПРИ ПОГРУЖЕНИЯХ В СИФОНЫ". facts only, no text reused. optics.sinp.msu.ru
  6. Wikipedia, "Veryovkina Cave" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Snetkov, "В пещере Веревкина произошло ЧП", vk.com; Snetkov, "Веревкина. Вчера, 17 августа 2021г. ...", vk.com (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Snetkov, "В пещере Веревкина произошло ЧП", vk.com. facts only, no text reused. vk.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Veryovkina Cave (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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