Lamprechtsofen


Lamprechtsofen is a limestone karst river cave in Austria. With a depth of, it is one of the deepest caves in the world. Before the discovery of the Krubera Cave in Georgia, it was the deepest-known cave in the world. Lamprechtsofen is located northwest of Weißbach bei Lofer, Austria, in the Leogang Mountains.

History

Early history

The cave has been known for centuries. In 1701 it was walled up to prevent the intrusion of treasure seekers, who were lured to the cave by legends of wealth hidden by a knight named Lamprecht after the Crusades.
In 1905, several human skeletons were found in the cave, probably the remains of treasure hunters. At the same time, a portion of the cave was opened to the public as a show cave.

Exploration and depth record

The exploration of Lamprechtsofen has been primarily conducted from the bottom, rather than the top-down exploration typical for vertical caves.
On August 19, 1998, a team led by Polish caver Andrzej Ciszewski discovered a connection between Lamprechtsofen and the PL-2 cave system, which established the height difference of the united cave system as. This new discovery made Lamprechtsofen the deepest-known cave in the world for less than three years, since Krubera was discovered in June 2001 to be deep.
As of 2014, Lamprechtsofen is the fourth-deepest cave in the world, since two more Georgian caves have since been discovered to be deeper. Sarma Cave is and Illyuzia-Mezhonnogo-Snezhnaya Cave is.

Show cave

Today, about are open to visitors, a portion of the cave that covers a altitude difference.
Because of the cave's river, it is subject to flooding from heavy rain and melting snow. As such, visitors and explorers have been occasionally trapped in the cave.