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Three Caves

Part of Serbia below the Danube River is pretty mountainous, with complex geology, especially in the eastern parts where the Carpathian and Balkan mountains collided and over eons formed the Serbian Carpathians, with a total of 14 independent mountain ranges in existence today. These rocks date back to the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion–541 million years ago), with limestones and dolomites mainly formed from the late Jurassic to early Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago. There are dozens of large caves within these mountains, and many have tourist paths built to visit and admire their beauty and history. Two of them we visited last week, and they both gave us extraordinary experiences and impressions.


However, the first cave in this blog story belongs to the one formed in the foothills of an ancient volcano of the nowadays mountain of Bukulja in western Serbia, although the recent paper posted a theory that the mountain is much younger (15 million years ago) and instead formed in tectonic processes. Whatever the case, the Risovača cave is definitely unique in the Balkans and probably on several occasions hosted families of Neanderthals during the Late Pleistocene era. Numerous tools from this period similar to those found within other Neanderthal sites across Europe are found here and preserved for display in local museums. Like with other groups, and due to small numbers overall, Neanderthals most likely went extinct due to assimilation with modern humans in a process called "bred into extinction". More about it I wrote in Neanderthals, Humans and Shared Caves.

During the same time, the cave hosted various dominant animals from the same period, like cave lions, hyenas, and bears. This image is from the local museum of Arandjelovac, and its special space is occupied by the cave bear, fully assembled from the bones found in the cave. The bones belonged to more than one animal and formed a skeleton up to three meters high, which was approximately the average height for the cave bears. Those behemoths could go up to 1 ton in mass and 3.5 meters in height.


In the Balkans, during the last couple of millenniums of coexistence of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, our ancestors lived mainly along the rivers, especially the Danube to the north, while Neanderthals occupied more inland territories, no doubt in the vicinity of caves like this one. There is strong evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead, most likely not in the caves themselves, which is the main reason for the lack of human remains excavated to date.

Compared to the Risovača, two other caves, Ravništarka, named after the nearby village, and Lazar's cave, named after a rebel man who found shelter there in the time of the Ottoman Empire, stand out with their natural beauty rich in cave jewelry and mineral formations. 


Ravništarka cave is pretty long and one of those river caves with the small stream flowing its entire length. The water dug the whole canal of around 500 meters, and the mountain minerals did the rest. Numerous stalactites and stalagmites decorated the tourist path, like the one in this image, in the shape of a flying horse. Dozens of other pareidolia-decorating wall formations are made of glittering calcite, which under the LED lights gives the amazing feeling of surreality. 

Lazar's cave on the other end, with its large entrance, is probably hiding more history than it is currently known. For its wide space within, it has always been the center of human activity ever since the Copper Age. During the Bronze Age, Lazar's Cave played the role of a hunting station, and in the Iron Age it became a center of metallurgy. Even in recent history, the cave attracted people for multiple reasons. Numerous legends are circulating around, with one claiming that lots of Serbian soldiers hid inside after surviving the battle of Kosovo and the defeat by the invading army of the Ottoman Empire on June 15, 1389. 


Even though the caves could be crowded with tourists, we had luck that all three were free of charge at the opening hours, and browsing the mysterious caverns alone added an extra feeling afterwards. Somehow it felt like we traveled back in time, and all the sites inside caves seen in pristine condition looked unearthly beautiful and alien.

The following photos and videos are the best we could do with modest smartphones in dark light conditions, but some of them turned out really phenomenal.

Risovača cave:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ienEnC1xypJBdNut7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEWXtFiKhE
https://www.nmar.rs/en/risovaca-cave/
 

Adventurous Travels for 6th Graders

Geographically lying in the heart of the Balkan peninsula, the small town of Svrljig is acting as the capital of a relatively small Serbian land surrounded by exactly 38 villages that are, demographically speaking, living their lives on the edge of extinction. In just half a century, the human population of the area is more than halved, with more and more 'haunted-like' villages containing more empty houses than those with smoked winter chimneys, in which more people die than are born. The past of the area went through numerous changes over time and was pretty colorful, to say the least. Like everywhere else, ever since the written literacy spread its wings only a millennium ago, the history of Svrljig is pretty well documented ever since the great Schism of the 11th century, and we pretty much know what it was like to live here down to that time.


But history goes even further in the past—to those times we know little about, and all we have are a ruin here and there we can try to understand and build a time frame and story behind it. If you want to explore such sites and build a speculation or two standing in the middle of a stone pile that once was a dignified wall of an ancient villa or a military tower of thermae, Svrljig is a perfect place to start with. Moreover, if you want to experience nature at its greatest and to stumble upon sites of pure beauty just next to the modern ruins of almost empty villages and barely standing houses in contrast, you are just where you want to be. If you are a 6th grader with your own Indiana Jones hat and modern GoPro camera, even better.

Historically and in every way considered, the grand jewel title of all the Svrljig adventurous travels goes to the gorgeous Niševac gorge. This was the prime location of ancient life, lying just next to the Roman main road connecting the Adriatic Sea and Danube River, wide enough to carry a luxury chariot without heavy disturbance from the built stones and strong enough to support the passage of the heaviest army of the time (there's evidence of the First Cohort of Cretans stationed around here). The gorge was an ancient spa once with strong mineral springs with healing properties perfect for a settlement that once existed and was named Timaco Maiori (Timacum Maius). The road and the town were recorded by Tabula Peutingeriana, an ancient Roman road map with its seventh section along the way of the ancient cities of Lissus, Naissus, and Rataria. The mineral springs and wellheads no longer exist today due to violent geological events in previous millennia, or they are just depleted by now, but the beauty of the ancient site is still alive, and it is not hard to imagine what it once looked like.



The ruins go even further in time in this area with archaeological evidence of Paleo-Balkan tribes. Before the Romans, this area was once home to the Triballi, a Thracian tribe that lived in the same times as the Celts, Scythians, and Illyrians in the prehistory of Southeastern Europe. Along with all the other extinct Indo-European people and their languages of the Balkans, Triballi fully dispersed during the Hellenization, Romanization, and Slavicization of the region over the eons. It's maybe harsh to say, but most likely Triballi, just like other people who lived here and built their settlements ever since the Neolithic, are now only part of our genes and heritage; we have no substantial knowledge of.

But to get back to the travel itself, we had luck this summer since the railway was closed and traffic-free due to maintenance and rail replacement, and while hiking Niševac gorge, a 1.5 km-long canyon carved in calcium carbonate rocks from the Mesozoic period, we took the chance and stood on the Milutin Milanković bridge, 15 or so meters above an ancient river, designed at the dawn of the first world war by one of the most famous Serbian scientists.



The river name originated back to the Triballi people, who were the first to name it Timahos, which is just one of the words from an extinct Indo-European language that more or less means 'black water'. This particular stream is just one of five rivers that bind together into one of the biggest tributaries of the mighty Danube. The Romans used to call it Timacus or Timaco, and the name stayed until today with the Serbian version of Timok. Our next stop on this summer's travels was exactly 25 kilometers upstream, not far from the spot where the river springs into life. The place is called Pandiralo, and it is literally one of a kind natural phenomena where Timok sinks into a cave and appears again about 750 meters later with around 30 meters of difference in altitude. The legend says the cave goes even further under the mountain and connects other streams as well, but this is still unknown to this date. It was also a one-of-a-kind opportunity to create three messages in the bottle, which Viktor threw into the pit, and hopefully, when the water rises, they will sink with the river, and maybe somebody will find them in the future. Who knows, maybe they will appear somewhere unexpected.

Finally, and unrelated to the river, we also had a short trip to the Samar cave entrance (Milutin’s Cave in the village of Kopajkošara on the slopes of the Kalafat mountain, some 15 kilometers west of Svrljig) and the natural Popšica pool close by. The cave earned its nickname after Milutin Veljković, a well-known Serbian speleologist in his time, who, starting in the year 1969, spent 464 days in the cave, breaking the world record in bivouacking in an underground space. While we didn't enter the cave, as it requires special equipment and guided help, we still had a unique experience of the site, which we are hoping to visit again for a more thorough investigation, including passing through the entire cave from end to end, but I am afraid this is a little bit above the pay grade of 6th graders, and we will have to wait for a year or two. Or three. Or even more.



Svrljig neighborhood and the town itself are one of those inspirational destinations with the power to hook you for years of returning trips, and the beauty lies in the wilderness of the whole experience. There are no fences or limited areas here, and the only guide is yourself and your wanderlust gene. The food in restaurants is divine, and the mountain air comes with healing abilities if you stay long enough. The Svrljig area extends to the east to the famous Balkan mountains, the backbone of the largest peninsula of southern Europe, with more sites that come naturally enriched with a variety of elements, including uranium ore.

I am definitely affected by the Svrljig geography and history as well, to the level that one of my science fiction stories included this particular area as the main plot for Arty's adventure. If you are eager to explore the story, it is based on "Serbian Kryptonite", the Jadarite mineral with a chemical formula similar to the formula invented for the fictional substance kryptonite in the 2006 film 'Superman Returns'. The story is the final chapter of the FAR-T1 novel you can find on the blog.

Location and Character of Timacum Maius
https://www.academia.edu/5901475/.../Location_and_Character_of_Timacum_Maius

Traces of the Roman Naissus–Ratiaria Road
http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/

Milutin Milanković
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milutin_Milankovic

Tabula Peutingeria
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Extends_of_the_Tabula_Peutingeria.png

Tabula Peutingeriane VII (nowadays Serbia)
https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Peutingeriana_Serbia.jpg

The First Cohort of Cretans, a Roman Military Unit at Timacum Maius
https://www.academia.edu/.../The_First_Cohort_of_Cretans

Samar Cave Adventure
https://naturetraveloffice.com/en/avanture/caving/avantura-samar/

Samar Cave, a forgotten jewel worthy of Guinness record
https://www.itinari.com/samar-cave-a-forgotten-jewel-worthy-of-guinness-record-knx9