The karst terrain of China is a paradise of fertile land for the emergence of caves and mysterious underground paradises. Weeks ago, the Chinese explorer Hongying Wu stumbled upon a mysterious forest hidden in the middle of a cave in the forests of China. At that time, it was said that the sinkhole reached a depth of 192 meters, but it is only now that researchers have descended its porous walls to explore the mysterious forest in the depths.
Tiankeng, or “heavenly pit” in Mandarin, is the name locals give to the cavernous formations that arise as a result of the collapse of karst soil. This type of soil faces groundwater that slowly erodes the rock until it becomes weak enough to turn it into porous stone. Over the years, underground caverns are formed and eventually the ceiling collapses to give way to the astonishing sinkholes.
The Tiankeng discovered weeks ago in the Guangxi Zhuang region near Ping’e in Leye, China, was first spotted by sinkhole expert Hongying Wu through satellite images. After Wu alerted about the presence of the sinkhole, a group of eight expert investigators and explorers gathered to descend to the mysterious place.
A Controlled Descent
With Wu included, the expedition team began the descent by rappelling down the steep walls of the sinkhole. Soon they found firm ground to continue on foot, however, they knew it was not the bottom of the cave. Then they embarked on a hike through an ancient mysterious forest that rose up to 40 meters above their view.
After a few hours of the expedition, the team finally reached a small flat piece of land that marked the lowest point of the pit with a total depth of 192 meters from the entrance of the cave. When the explorers reached the bottom, they caught sight of a family of eagles soaring above the trees of the mysterious forest, and for this reason, they decided to call the tiankeng “The Eagle.”
Scientist Yuanhai Zhang, who was also part of the expedition team, estimates that the sinkhole opened in the earth about 100,000 years ago. Then the cave began to get bigger and bigger until it became an underground forest full of life.
A forest is not the only thing that lies inside this surprising natural formation; towards the southeast of The Eagle, the explorers followed a path marked by an ancient river that flows into a small underground lake of turquoise waters.
The Largest Group of Sinkholes in the World
Although the discovery of The Eagle tiankeng is surprising because of the amount of life that inhabits it, it is not unfamiliar to the terrain of that region of China. In fact, Leye is globally recognized for its large group of 29 tiankengs that are distributed throughout its forests, and there may be many more.
This set of caves is the largest group of sinkholes in the world and is appreciated for its great importance. In fact, in 2015, UNESCO designated the Leye sinkholes as part of the Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark and recognized them as exceptional natural formations that are not found anywhere else in the world.
In recent years, the search for sinkholes has become a recurring sport for Chinese and worldwide explorer and geologist researchers. After all, they are small buried worlds that keep ancient secrets and where life has developed differently.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera.
