Also known as Dev, located just under two hours northeast of Sofia and an hour and a half from Velikovo Tarnovo, at 2.5 km (more than a mile and a half) in length this is Bulgaria´s second-longest cave. And it´s dramatic indeed, beginning with an entrance 30 meters high and 35 wide (18½ by 21½ feet), with seven gaps that have earned the cave the nickname Oknata ("the eyes"). This leads into a cavernous hall which soars up to 100m (328 ft.) in height. it´s one of the country´s Neolithic sites, based on artefacts discovered by archaeologists dating back to a staggering 70,000 BCE. In addition to its craggy tunnels and galleries, visitors can also observe a colony of some 30,15 protected bats, as it serves as one of the main bat hibernation spots. (Fun fact: a memorable scene from the 2011 tough-guy movie The Expendables 2 was filmed here, when Sylvester Stallone´s character crash lands a plane inside it.)
Read more in Tripatini contributor Neha Jangid´s post 4 Hidden Gems of Bulgaria.
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