Crystal Cave (Cueva de los Cristales) is a natural formation in the Mexican city of Naica, Chihuahua, lying at a depth of more than 300 m underground. Its uniqueness lies in the interweaving of huge transparent crystals of selenite (a crystalline variety of gypsum), reaching record sizes. Giant formations for several hundred thousand years were and grew in an underground cavity filled with water. Geologists call this miraculous Mexican miracle the "Sistine Chapel of Crystals".

The Cave of Giant Crystals was accidentally discovered in 2000 by two miner brothers named Sanchez, who were exploring a new drained passage in a silver-lead mine for the Industrias Peñoles mining company. Although the miners Juan and Pedro were accustomed to the most diverse formations, the picture that appeared before their eyes struck with its beauty - when the beam of the lantern illuminated the underground hall, it was repeatedly reflected in different directions, as if everything here was strewn with pieces of a broken mirror. The cave contains impressive crystals in its depths, which, like giant rays, cut the space lengthwise and across, creating a truly fantastic spectacle. The largest of them reaches 11 m in length, 4 m in diameter and weighs 55 tons, making it the largest natural crystalline formation ever found on planet Earth.

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Mexico(United Mexican States) is a country in North America.

Capital– Mexico City

Largest cities: Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla

Form of government- Presidential republic

Territory- 1,972,550 km 2 (13th in the world)

Population– 121 million people (11th in the world)

Official language-Spanish

Religion– Catholicism

HDI- 0.756 (74th in the world)

GDP– $1.294 trillion (15th in the world)

Currency– mexican peso

Borders with: USA, Belize, Guatemala

The local crystals are razor-sharp, some of them resemble the mouth of a shark, fancy candles or the huge eyes of a fairy-tale character. Water is constantly pumped out of the caves, because. in the event of a shutdown of the equipment, the space will be flooded again. Scientists have developed a special program - the Nike project, focused on protecting natural object from negative factors. The fact is that crystals degrade in air, so researchers strive to record all the data on a unique geological find as quickly as possible before it collapses.

Selenite crystals began to form in an underground cave about half a million years ago. Favorable conditions for growth were formed by a number of factors - the city of Naika lies on an ancient fault, due to which an underground magma chamber formed in the chamber under the cave. Hot magma heated groundwater, as a result of which they were saturated with minerals, including a large amount of gypsum.

Soon, the hollow space of the cave was completely filled with mineral-rich hot water and remained in this state for more than 500 thousand years. Throughout this time, the temperature of the mineral liquid did not drop below 50 °C, which allowed microscopic selenite crystals to form and grow to incredible sizes. Because of the ideal conditions, they continued to grow until the miners pumped out the groundwater to explore the cave deeper. If crystals are placed in an environment that has been “native” to them for many millennia, they will continue to grow.

The Cave of Giant Crystals is still very hot due to its proximity to a deep underground magma chamber. The air temperature inside the cavity reaches +58 0 C at a humidity of 90-100%. Being in a cave without special protective suits can lead to severe dehydration in 10-15 minutes. Such extreme conditions significantly complicate the process of studying the object by scientists. They are forced to wear cooling suits and a special backpack with a respirator that allows them to breathe cold air. Even with all the equipment, the time spent in the cave should not exceed 30 minutes at a time.

The first cave in the Nike mine complex was discovered in 1910 at a depth of 120 m, which was called the Cave of Swords. It is filled with transparent light crystals, not exceeding a meter in length. Most likely, the temperature at this depth dropped much earlier, stopping the growth of selenite formations. Crystals from this cave can be seen in many museums around the world.

Only 90 years later the world learned about the famous Cave of Crystals. It is a horseshoe-shaped depression located inside a limestone rock. The floor of the cave is dotted with transparent blocks, from which a huge 11-meter crystal protrudes. During drilling in 2009, at a depth of 150 meters, another hall was found, called the Ice Palace. In it, selenite formations are much smaller and are covered with thin thread-like growths and small formations resembling cauliflower.

Selenite is one of the most amazing forms of gypsum that often forms into small, transparent compounds. Only occasionally is it such giant crystals as in the cave of the Nike mine complex. The name of the mineral was in honor of the Greek goddess, the Moon, due to its soft white color. This form of gypsum is believed to have many healing and metaphysical properties.

Due to its great scientific and aesthetic importance, the natural wonder in Mexico is under protection, and access to the caves is open only to scientists and researchers. However, the attackers still managed to break the locks several times in order to extract the mineral. Even at the very beginning, when the object was not yet protected by a metal door, many crystals were repeatedly destroyed - some visitors tried to break off a piece as a souvenir, others pursued commercial purposes.

The study of the cave, which has been in a sealed state for so long, allows geologists to explore and analyze unique data that make it possible to see how the earth's crust has gradually developed over many millennia. In addition to geologists, this natural formation is of considerable interest to biologists, since microscopic cavities in crystals can store ancient microorganisms.

In 2011, the Discovery Channel prepared a project called Nike. On the other side of the Cave of Crystals. The program talked about computer modeling and mathematical processing, which made it possible to suggest the possibility of the existence of other similar caves, but further research could lead to the destruction of crystals.

Once all surrounding ores have been mined, the water pumps will be turned off, causing the caverns to flood again and return to their original state.

At school, in chemistry lessons, experiments are made on growing salt crystals, and if it is not a particularly difficult task to grow crystals from copper sulfate and alum, then getting gypsum at home is a more difficult and lengthy process. Nature has no time limit and in its natural "laboratories" it grows amazingly beautiful gypsum crystals that can be seen in caves, for example, in northern Mexico, in a semi-desert region located near the city of Naica. At a depth of 300 meters, in the complex of Naica mines, where silver, zinc and lead are mined, there are world-famous caves in which giant crystals amaze the imagination with their size.

The history of the discovery of the cave of crystals in Mexico

At the end of the eighteenth century, a silver vein was found at the foot of the slopes of the Nike. Of course, Mexican entrepreneurs put mining on stream, and built mines in the bowels of the earth. The development of new tunnels by the silver and lead mining company Industrias Penoles was carried out constantly, and in the spring of 2000, while drilling a new tunnel, the workers of the mine, the Sanchez brothers, stumbled upon a fairy-tale cave, where huge crystals sparkling with silver and gold stretched to dark arches. The picture that appeared before the eyes of the workers was amazing, and they immediately reported to the mine management about their amazing discovery. Several natural objects were damaged in the process of drilling and the management, in order to protect the unique find from plunder, closed the entrance to the cave, amazing in its beauty, with a metal door.

About crystals

Scientists using liquid taken from the caves have established how the crystals grew to such impressive sizes. It appears to be stable temperature regime, which is facilitated by the magma cavity under the cave, and the mineral-rich water contributes to the transformation of the mineral anhydrite into gypsum, more precisely into one of the most beautiful forms of this mineral - selenite, which forms into transparent compounds.

There are no crystals of selenite (gypsum) in the world that would be larger than the crystals in the Nike mine: transparent selenite rays reach fifteen meters in length and up to one and a half meters in diameter. This beauty weighs about 55 tons.

Characteristics of the Cave of Crystals in Mexico

The thermal regime inside the cave has characteristics that are quite tough for a person: the air temperature is kept at around + 50 ° C and this is at a humidity of 90-100%. There is even a tragic case of the death of one worker who tried to steal fragments of crystals, but the air he took into plastic bags was not enough, the worker lost consciousness and was later found dead, with a completely “baked” body in this terrible atmosphere. Therefore, tourists are not allowed to go on excursions to the cave of Giant Crystals for a simple inspection, because a person without protection is life-threatening for more than ten minutes, and speleologists admire giant crystals only in special suits that can withstand high temperature, humidity and hydrogen sulfide content in the air .

Today, several caves are already known in which giant crystals grow: the Cave of Swords, the Cave of Crystals and the Ice Hall, opened in 2009. There is a danger of flooding the caves, and you should not miss the chance to see the unique caves today.

How to get to the cave of giant crystals

Giant Crystal Cave is located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Airplanes fly to the capital of Chihuahua from Mexico City, Guadalajara and Tampico, and between the city of Chihuahua and the city of Nike, the distance is 128 kilometers, which can be covered by regular buses. Speleologists, geologists and biologists who want to explore beautiful dungeons get to the cave itself either by taxi or by passing cars.

Crystal Cave (Cueva de los Cristales / Giant Crystal Cave

The cave of crystals is located at a depth of 300 meters under the city of Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico.

The cave is unique in the presence of giant crystals of selenite (a mineral, a structural variety of gypsum). The largest of the found crystals has a size of 11 m in length and 4 m in width, with a mass of 55 tons. This is one of the largest known crystals.

It is very hot in the cave, temperatures reach +58 °C with a humidity of 90-100%. These factors make it very difficult for people to explore the cave, making it necessary to use special cooling equipment. Even with equipment, staying in a cave usually does not exceed 20 minutes, as water begins to condense in colder lungs.

Nike is located on an ancient fault, and there is a magma cavity under the cave. Magma heated underground waters, and they were saturated with minerals, including a large amount of gypsum. The cave has been filled with a hot solution of minerals for hundreds of thousands of years, up to several million years.

During this time, the temperature of the solution remained stable in the range of +54…+58 °C, providing the only possible conditions for the growth of selenite crystals (with the participation of the anhydrous form of calcium sulfate - anhydrite). The lowest crystal growth rate is 1.4 ± 0.2 × 10 −5 nm/s at a temperature of +55 °C.

In 1910, miners discovered a cave under the Nike mines, later named Cave of swords (Cueva de las Espadas). It is located at a depth of 120 m above Cave of Crystals and is filled with beautiful light and transparent crystals about a meter long. It is assumed that at this depth the temperature dropped much earlier, stopping the growth of crystals.

crystal cave was discovered in 2000 by the Sanchez miner brothers, who were digging a new tunnel in the mine complex. The Nike mine complex has significant deposits of silver, zinc, and lead. The Cave of Crystals is a horseshoe-shaped cavity in a limestone massif. Enormous crystals cross the space of the cave in different directions. Water is constantly pumped out of the caves. If the equipment stops, they will flood again. The crystals degrade in air, which is why the Nike Project researchers are keen to document this geological feature.

The new hall, named " Ice Palace”, was discovered during drilling in 2009. It is located at a depth of 150 m and is not filled with water. The crystal formations are much smaller, with thin thread-like outgrowths.

In the future, biologists may be interested in crystals, since ancient microorganisms can be found in their microscopic cavities filled with liquid. A Discovery TV show in February 2011 mentioned the possible existence of other caves, but their exploration requires the destruction of crystals. It was indicated that the cave would eventually be returned to its original flooded state.

Selenite- one of the most amazing forms of gypsum, which often forms into small transparent compounds. Only occasionally does it appear as giant crystals, as in the cave of the Nike mine complex. The name of the mineral was in honor of the Greek goddess, the Moon, due to its soft white color. It is assumed that this form of gypsum has many healing and metaphysical properties.

By virtue of a natural wonder of great scientific and aesthetic importance in Mexico it is under protection, and access to the caves is open only to scientists and researchers. However, the attackers still managed to break the locks several times in order to extract the mineral. Even at the very beginning of its history, when the object was not yet protected by a metal door, many crystals were repeatedly destroyed - some visitors tried to break off a piece as a souvenir, others pursued commercial purposes.

Once all surrounding ores have been mined, the water pumps will be turned off, causing the caverns to flood again and return to their original state.

Geologists have long called this cave the Sistine Chapel of Crystals, trying to highlight its truly unique beauty. Here giant crystals are intertwined with bizarre patterns that take your breath away. If you illuminate the inside of the cave with a flashlight, then the rays from it will scatter in different directions, fancifully reflected at different angles from the surface of giant selenite crystals. But the beauty of the cave can be deadly to humans.

Naica mine

This mine was discovered at the end of the 18th century near the city of Chihuahua in Mexico, when researchers discovered a silver vein at the base of the hill. Until the beginning of the 20th century, developers were only interested in precious metals: gold and silver. The development of heavy industry led to an increase in demand for zinc and lead, the development of which began to be carried out in the mine.

The uniqueness of the mine lies in the voids filled with selenite crystals of incredible beauty and size (a type of gypsum). The first such void, called the Cave of Swords, was discovered back in 1910. All the free space of the 87-meter cave, located at a depth of 120 meters, was cut with bizarre plaster swords 2 meters long. Mineralogical collections have been replenished with new specimens extracted from the discovered void.

dangerous beauty

The Naica mine continues to develop metals today. It was thanks to them that this miracle was discovered at a depth of almost 300 meters in April 2000.

Two brothers, who were engaged in laying the tunnel, opened the void during drilling and immediately froze from unprecedented beauty. Juan and Pedro Sanchez had seen many gypsum crystals during their work, but these were different in size and shape from anything they had seen before. There were three voids in total, and each of them was given its own name: the Eye of the Queen, the Cave of Sails and the Glass Cave.

The brothers immediately informed the responsible engineer of the enterprise about the found miracle. To Roberto Gonzalez's credit, he reacted very quickly, ordering the direction of the tunnel to be changed to prevent the gypsum crystals from breaking. It was clear that this find could be of interest to scientists and researchers, so it should not be allowed to be destroyed or plundered. Moreover, the miners immediately tried to bring the fragments of crystals destroyed during the drilling of the tunnel to the surface. But the management of the company Industrias Penoles, which owns the mine, promptly restricted access to the cave by placing a metal door at the entrance.

One of the workers of the mine nevertheless realized the tragic opportunity for himself to enter the cave. Apparently, he was interested in the possibility of getting something from the sale of samples and fragments of giant crystals. Without a special suit, taking with him only bags of fresh air, the miner squeezed through a narrow gap between the door and the wall. It is unknown how long he spent inside before losing consciousness. His body was found almost scorched. Air bags failed to save his life.

The high temperature inside the cave, together with almost one hundred percent humidity, poses a huge danger. Without a suit cooling the body and inhaled air, one can stay in the cave for no more than 15 minutes. In addition to this suit, a special respiratory system will also be required, capable of purifying the air entering the lungs of a person from an extremely high content of hydrogen sulfide.

Naturally, access to the cave is closed to ordinary tourists. And researchers carefully study the cave and each crystal in it, documenting their research. Everything that scientists see inside a unique cave is recorded in the logs.

miraculous miracle

The weight of giant crystals is at least 55 tons with a length of about 15 and a diameter of about 1.2 meters. The process of their formation took place over many thousands of years. Today, researchers confidently say that the age of the crystals is about half a million years.

Many centuries ago, these amazing creations of nature were formed as a result of the contact of cold surface and thermal waters inside the caves. Oxygenated cold water did not immediately mix with hot (about 52 degrees Celsius) thermal water saturated with sulfides, but provoked the oxidation of sulfides and the growth of selenite, moonstone.

Surprisingly, crystal growth is limited solely by the size of the cave. If the void were larger in area, the crystals could also reach even larger sizes.

If the caves are filled with water again, then the process of crystal growth will certainly continue. But contact with air is detrimental to the plaster miracle. A special door is installed at the entrance to the cave, which does not allow fresh streams to penetrate from the ventilated tunnel leading to the very heart of the amazing cave.

In order to preserve this beauty, in 2006 a whole project was created and launched, on which scientists are still working.

In addition to Cueva de los Cristales, there are still others in the world that are simply breathtaking.

There are places on our planet, once in which you involuntarily realize how tiny a person is after all ... This article will focus on an amazing cave in Mexico, distinctive feature which are simply incredible sizes of crystals ...

The Cave of Giant Crystals was found while drilling a local mine 300 meters deep in the Mexican town of Naica, Chihuahua.

The main chamber of the cave contains some of the largest selenite crystals ever found on the planet (selenite is a crystalline form of gypsum), for example, the largest crystal found reaches 11 meters in length, 4x in diameter and weighs about 55 tons.

This is what selenite looks like pure form

The cave is extremely difficult to explore due to extreme conditions - constant 90-99% humidity and temperatures reaching 65 ° C, as a result of which an ordinary person without a special protective suit can stay here for no more than 10 minutes, so the cave owes the main measurements and research to a specially assembled for this goal, a group of scientists known as the Nike Project

And these pictures were taken by professional photographer Matthew Rader, who specializes in photography in narrow, wet and hard-to-reach canyons, as well as in dark and dangerous environment, although even for him shooting in such extreme conditions was not easy, and it was not possible to take clear photographs, even using all the tricks and techniques in his arsenal

Matthew himself later said that when photographing the crystals, he was so excited by the views that opened up that he had to force himself to concentrate on time in order to return to the exit located 10 meters from him in time and not lose consciousness

Today, access to the crystal caves is open only to scientists, but a couple of times the locks were broken open by mineral hunters. Later they were found, but one of the hunters was "deceived" even before that, right at the crime scene - the unlucky robber was pierced through with a crystal that he wanted to knock down from the ceiling

The conditions for the occurrence of such unique crystals in this cave were created by an ancient fault, due to which magma entered the chamber below it. The heated groundwater began to become saturated with minerals (mainly gypsum) - as a result, the cave gradually filled with this extremely mineral-rich liquid and remained in this state for more than 500 thousand years. All this time, the temperature here fluctuated around 50 ° C, which allowed the crystals to form and grow to such huge sizes.

In 1910, Nike miners discovered a strange cave while mining at a local mine. The discovery was immediately dubbed the Cave of Swords because of the characteristic salt formations, reaching a meter in length. The Cave of Swords is located at a depth of 120 meters, directly above the Cave of Crystals, and the relatively small size of the selenite formations suggests that during their formation the temperature here fell much faster than in the lower chamber, as a result of which the crystals of the Cave of Swords stopped growing, unlike Cave of Crystals, which still maintains suitable temperature conditions for their growth

The Cave of the Giant Crystals was only discovered in April 2000 by Eloy and Javier Delgado, miners of the Nike Mining Company Industrias Pe?oles, who were digging a drainage tunnel in a mine rich in silver, zinc and lead, at a depth of about 330 meters. Noticing that a small hole had formed as a result of the explosion, Aloy squeezed through it and ended up in a room about 10 by 20 meters. The Mexican was so amazed by what he saw that for a moment he was speechless. He later said that when the beam of the lantern hit the room, it was reflected many times in different directions, as if someone had broken a giant mirror here. A month later, another, more voluminous cave with selenite was found nearby.

The Cave of Crystals is a horseshoe-shaped depression in limestone rock. Its floor is covered with almost perfectly faceted transparent blocks, from which the same huge crystal protrudes, which we have already spoken about above. Today, the caves are only accessible thanks to the constant pumping of water by the mining company's powerful pumps. If you stop them, the cave will fill up with water again. The problem is that when exposed to air, the crystals deteriorate and begin to break, so the Nike scientists try to visually register the crystals before they break.

In 2009, during another drilling, a far room of the Cave of Crystals was found, later called the Ice Palace. It is 150 meters deep and does not flood, but its selenite crystals are much smaller, with small "cauliflower" shaped formations and amazing whiskers.

In February 2011, the Discovery channel produced a program "Nika. Beyond the Cave of Crystals", which stated that scientists are confident in the existence of many other "crystal" rooms, but further research will lead to the destruction of crystals

Experts say that it is possible to preserve selenite crystals by gradually lowering the temperature, therefore, in the near future, the mining company plans to equip the Giant Crystal Cave with an air conditioning system and make it more convenient for tourists to visit, so it is quite possible that the first lucky ones will get there in a year.

Most likely, both caves will be open to the public - a smaller one, the size of a two-bedroom apartment (temperatures around 40°C), and a larger one, the size of a temple (temperatures over 60°C). Both of them are at almost 400 meters depth.

When the mine runs out of metal, it will become uneconomical for Industrias Pe?oles to maintain these unique caves, so they will be sealed again and allowed to fill with water.

A short video that allows you to see in more detail all the beauty of this unique place…

If you liked the Cave of Crystals, I advise you to visit also the Austrian Ice Cave virtually