Throughout the 2.5 kilometers of the man-made cave, the passages are wide enough for a truck to pass through. The space is an intricate web of passages, much like those of an ants. Inside, the year round temperature ranges from 12 - 16 degrees Celsius.
The two aspects that I most appreciated in the cave were, when I took the brief boat ride, I got a sense of how extensive the passages were, and during the 5 minute ride, I got to see the single remaining amethyst geode in the ceiling above one of the central waterways. Somehow I was under the impression before visiting the cave that more amethysts would be embedded in the walls but evidently they were harvested as quickly as they were found.
Taking the very short boat ride with the sides of the cavern draped in glitzy lights. This picture turned out better than the reality. |
The single obvious geode in the ceiliing, left to show visitors a naturally occurring geode. |
This amethyst geode was discovered August 20, 1987 by the foreman and the mayor of the team. It took 20 miners about seven hours to remove about 10 tonnes of stone and collect the uncut stone. The then appraised value was calculated at about 500,000,000 won. For demonstrating a geode to visitors it was been restored to its near original state. The size of the geode is 1.8 meters in diameter and 4.5 meters in height. There is also a display hall of many different sizes and shapes of amethysts. They would have been very interesting to see, however, moisture had gotten into most of the plastic casings so viewing the amethysts geodes inside was next to impossible. A bit sad about that.
The Egyptian site was positively the worst. This one is better laid out and decorated than most. The imitation Seokguram. |
The imitation Seokguram. |
A paper dragon stuck on the wall. I think building a myth around the dragon would give the cave and the cheapness of the dragon a little more appeal. |
This part is historically interesting as it shows how geodes were mined and extracted from the rock. |
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