VietNamNet Bridge – President Truong Tan Sang has presented the third-class Labor Order to a Vietnamese and British men, who discovered the Cave of Son Doong, in the central province of Quang Binh.

They are a Quang Binh resident Ho Khanh, 47 and British cave explorer Howard Limbert, 59.

Son Doong Cave was discovered by Ho Khanh who lives in Son Trach commune, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province. However, it was only officially published in April 2009 by British Royal expedition, led by Howard Limbert. Thank to his discovery of the cave, Ho Khanh was honored to name the cave and he named it Son Doong as it is situated in Doong place (Son means mountain).

Son Doong cave was formed 2-5 million years ago when the river which flowed through the limestone mountain area was buried by a choke. The water flow eroded the limestone and created an underground tunnel. In the soft limestone area, the ceiling collapsed and formed large holes which took a long time to create giant domes.

With the height of 200 m, 250 m in some area, the width of 200 m and the length of 8.5 km, Son Doong ran at the first place, passing Deer Cave in Gunung Mulu in Malaysia to be the world’s largest natural cave.

Remarkably, Son Doong Cave has two entrances – hardly seen in most discovered caves in Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park. Going deep inside the cave, there are magnificent and spectacular scenes of the stalactites and stalagmites, some 70-m high. In the middle of the cave, there’s a site called “Garden of Eden”, where tourists can encounter a great tropical forest, bathed in the blue light of the immense trees and many animals such as birds, snakes, squirrels, monkeys.

The cave consists of a river which has 2.5 km in length. The flow of the river brought the scallop shell creating a layer accumulation on the riverbed. Not far from the Garden of Eden is the giant “pearl collection” consisting of thousands of round stones laying between the rocky crevices in the heart of the shallow pond. In rainy season, the calcium crystals within water enclose the sand to form huge “pearls”, adorning the marvelous beauty of the cave.

Shortly after the announcement of the new explored cave, Son Doong cave quickly attracted attention of many major media outlets in the world. The National Geographic magazine (USA) published several articles praising the cave’s beauty and value of biography. The cave has also been voted as one of the most beautiful caves in the world by the BBC (UK). Son Doong cave has become the pride of not only people in Quang Binh province but also the entire Vietnamese people.

Le Ha