Friday, May 04, 2007

More from Baredine

In the following chamber grows the tower of Pisa.
There is an important detail to be seen at the ceiling, the so called initial channel, the first way of the water, along which the whole cave was formed.


Steps lead down to the fourth chamber. In front of us huge draperies of more than 10 meters of length hang from the ceiling. (Their age is presumably more than 100 000 years, because they grow only a few millimeters in 10 years!)

To the right we look into the Big Shaft, which leads down 60 meters in three steps and is filled with water at the bottom.
There is the habitat of the famous Proteus, the biggest real troglodyte.
As a special attraction we can have a close look at one specimen in a small pool left of the path.
The animal is perfectly adjusted to live in eternal night. It is white because it doesn’t need any protection from sunlight. Its eyes became stunted but the constitution is still there. This shows that it lived in former times above ground. It is believed that it fled at the end of ice age into the coolness of the caves. By the way it lives very long - as long as a human being?

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