Mammoth Cave National Park

The Mammoth Cave lies in the "Land of 10,000 Sinks" (Caveland Corridor), an area in south-western Kentucky approximately 80 mi. south of Louisville, strongly marked by karstic features of all kinds. With over 300 mi. of passages so far surveyed, the Mammoth Cave is one of the world's largest known cave systems, and was already known to the original Indian inhabitants of the region in the 1st millennium BC. A variety of tours are available: the Historic Tour (which must be booked in advance in the summer) takes in the underground Booth's Amphitheater and the old saltpeter quarry. The high points of the tour are the Mammoth Dome (almost 200 ft high) and the Ruins of Karnak. The Half Day Tour runs past the Snowball Dining Room with the extraordinary rock formations (originally snow white) on its roof, the imposing Frozen Niagara with its magnificent stalactites and stalagmites and the beautiful Crystal Lake. The Echo River Tour (Jun.-Sep.) follows the Echo and Styx Rivers through a series of chambers and passages. The strenuous Wild Cave Tour is for experienced and properly equipped cave explorers only.