Magura cave is a cultural monument and a national tourist site. Its floor covers over 28,600 sq m, its volume is over 65,535 cubic metres, and the galleries found so far are about 2,608 m long in all.
The halls and the formations
The main halls and galleries are the Triumphal Hall, the Bat Gallery, the Hall of the Stalactones, the Gallery of the Drawings, the Hall of the Fallen Pine, the Hall of the Poplar, the Throne Hall, the Ceremonial Hall and the Corridor of the Fjords.
The formations are stalactites, stalagmites, stalactones, sinter pockets, cave pearls and “cave milk”, a soft limy mass that hardens later. Some are over 20 m high and 4 m in diameter. The Fallen Pine is the largest stalagmite in the explored Bulgarian caves: over 11 m long and 6 m in diameter.
The Harps, also called the Bells, give different sounds when struck, and the sounds blend into a chord. In the Throne Hall the Throne, the Petrified River and the Mushroom stand close together.
The rock drawings
The cave holds several hundred rock drawings made with bat guano. They come from different ages, from the Epipalaeolithic (10,000 BC) to the Early Bronze Age, and show ritual and hunting scenes, dancing women and men, hunters, animals, stars, tools and plants.
Of special interest is the solar calendar of the year from the Late Neolithic. It has marks for 366 days and records the solstices and the equinoxes.
Lived in for thousands of years
Bones of cave bear, cave hyena, wild horse, wild cat, roe deer and red deer have been found in Magura. Studies show that the cave was lived in as early as 12,000 years ago.
In the Triumphal Hall six levels of dwellings have been told apart, from the Early Bronze Age (3000 BC) to the Early Iron Age (12th–9th century BC). The dwellings were of wooden stakes woven with rods and plastered with clay mixed with straw. The tools were made of stone and antler.
Sparkling wine and easy paths
One branch of the cave holds the only cellar in the country for natural sparkling wine made by the classic (bottle) method.
The cave is easy to reach and has electric light and comfortable paved paths. It is on the list of the 100 National Tourist Sites.
