Recorded cave history

In people's minds, caves have always been a mysterious area. Europeans think that caves are the gateway to hell, while Tibetans think that caves are evil places and never enter easily. The hidden treasures and guarded pythons described in the film, as well as various mysterious spells attached to them, aroused people's longing for caves and also had the influence of fear.

The scientific records and discussions about caves have a long history. As early as Mountain Classic (Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period) and Shennong Herbal Classic (Western Han Dynasty), there were records about caves and their chemical deposits. Before Sui and Tang Dynasties, many caves were visited and explored by tourists, leaving a large number of stone carvings, inscriptions and other cultural relics. Xu Xiake (1587- 164 1), a great geographer and traveler in the Ming Dynasty, personally visited more than 300 karst caves in the south of China, becoming a pioneer in cave investigation and investigation in the world. Since modern times, the study of cave archaeology and cave culture in China, represented by Peking Zhoukoudian Ape Cave, has attracted worldwide attention. With the development of national economic construction and the development of Sino-foreign joint cave exploration activities, a number of difficult giant cave systems have been detected and a number of new achievements have been made. More and more caves have been discovered, explored and developed.

According to preliminary statistics, there are more than 400 caves with tunnel length exceeding 500 meters. As of May, 2002, there are 65,438+008 caves in China with the measured length exceeding 3,000 meters. The total number of tourist caves developed is about 3000; There are nearly 100 caves with important archaeological value. At present, the largest known cave system is the Shuanghe Cave Group in Suiyang, Guizhou, with a total length of117km. The second is the Bailang underground river cave system in leye county, Guangxi, which detects a total of 75 kilometers of cave passages; Third, Tenglong Cave in lichuan county, Hubei Province, with a total length of 52.8 kilometers; Guizhou Xiuwen Bailong Cave System, Zhenyuan Deaf Cave, Suiyang Shuanghe Cave, Dobin Cave and other tunnels all exceed 20 kilometers in length. Many caves have huge cave halls. There are 24 single pavilions with a plane area of over 30,000 square meters in the world, including 7 in China. The Miao Temple of the Gobi River Cave System in Guizhou has an area of 1 1.6 million square meters, ranking second in the world. Judging from the volume of single hall, the red rose hall in Dacaodong, Leye County, Guangxi is 7 million cubic meters, ranking second in the world.