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14-771: The cave was discovered during the quarrying of limestone at the Bigge Valley Limestone Works ( Biggetaler Kalkwerk ) on 19 July 1907 and was opened up by the owners to tourists that same year. Today the Atta Cave is the most-visited show cave in Germany, receiving around 350,000 tourists per year, and is an important economic factor for the town. Amongst its attractions are numerous calc-sinter flowstone drapes, colourfully tinctured by iron oxides . There are also many stalactites , stalagmites and stalagnates . Several pieces of calcite crystal formations were moved into

28-462: Is sealed today with a metal door. In one part of the cave, cheese is stored, a water curtain is supposed to help stop the smell spreading too far. The cave is still in private hands today. It has been criticised for its high entry charges and ban on photography. 51°07′30″N 7°54′56″E  /  51.12500°N 7.91556°E  / 51.12500; 7.91556 Show cave A show cave —also called tourist cave , public cave , and, in

42-508: Is the oldest show cave in Europe. The first tourists to the cave were recorded in 1633. It is located next to the village of Lokev in the municipality of Sežana on the Karst Plateau in southwestern Slovenia . Vilenica Cave is more than 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in length, with a depth of 180 m (590 ft), but tourists are only allowed into the first 450 m (1,480 ft) of

56-531: Is used inconsistently between nations: many countries tend to call all caves which are open to the public show caves or public caves in contrary to all other caves which are not allowed to enter. However, there are many such caves which are not developed with trails, light and tours, which are visited by very many people. This kind of cave is often called a semi-wild cave. Access may involve anything between an easy stroll and dangerous climbing . Most cave accidents happen in this kind of cave, as visitors underestimate

70-457: The speleothems . The caves are also inhabited by bats that get into the cave through rock crevices in the hilltop. Other parts of the cave were discovered in 1985 by Elmar Hammerschmidt. The total length of the cave is 6,000 metres but it has not been completely surveyed. For the show cave section there is a roughly 500 m long circular tour. It is reached through a 90 metre long gallery through which visitors are guided. The original entrance

84-566: The United States, commercial cave —is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits. A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to the public for guided visits, where a cave is defined as a natural occurring void beneath the surface of the earth, per the International Show Caves Association. A show cave may be managed by a government or commercial organization and made accessible to

98-625: The cave and in the towns and villages of the Karst and elsewhere. The event most commonly happens in the beginning of September. The central part of the festival is the conferral of the Vilenica Prize for literature by the Slovene Writers' Association . The award is bestowed in the cave's Plesna Hall ( Plesna dvorana ) on an author from Central Europe for his or her achievements in literary and essay writing. This Slovenian geography article

112-587: The cave is guided with handheld LED lamps. In 1884, two more caves were equipped with electric light, Postojna Cave , Slovenia , and Olgahöhle , Germany . Because of the unwanted development of lampenflora ( algae attracted to heat and light) around incandescent electric lights in show caves, many of these attractions, such as Ingleborough Cave in England , have switched to cooler-temperature LED lighting . Vilenica Cave Vilenica Cave or Vilenica Cave at Lokev ( Slovene : Jama Vilenica pri Lokvi )

126-464: The cave. Until the mid-19th century it was known as the biggest, most beautiful, and most frequently visited cave of the Classical Karst. It attracted artists such as Ferdinand Runk and Peter Fendi , who was awarded a gold medal in 1821 for his oil painting of the cave. Later it was surpassed by Postojna Cave . Since 1986, the annual Vilenica International Literary Festival has taken place in

140-710: The difficulties and dangers. The oldest known show cave in the world is probably Reed Flute Cave in China with inscriptions from 792 in the time of the Tang dynasty . Other old show caves are Postojna Cave in Slovenia , with the presumed first record of a cave tour in 1213. Other early show caves are Jasov Cave in Slovakia with inscriptions from 1452, the Sontheimer Höhle in Germany which

154-526: The first cave in the world with electric arc light. This light did not use light bulbs, but electric arc lamps with carbon electrodes, which burned down and had to be replaced after some time. The first cave in the world with electric light bulbs as we know them today was the Kraushöhle in Austria in 1883. But the light was abandoned after only seven years and then visited with carbide lamps for decades. Today

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168-554: The general public, usually for an entrance fee. Unlike wild caves, they may possess regular opening hours, guided group tours, constructed trails and stairs, color artificial illumination and other lighting, musical/video/laser shows and concerts, elevators, small trains, and boats if they contain underground water features. Some caves (mainly in Asia) open to the public have temples, monasteries and religious statues or monuments. Some caves are visited by millions of tourists annually. The term

182-541: The public area of the cave in order to be displayed there. The formation of the cave started in the Devonian period (about 400 million years ago) when the region of the present-day cave still lay in a bay of the sea. In the layers of limestone then being laid down, caverns were formed over time by carbonic acid weathering caused by the rainwater seeping through it as well as mixed corrosion ( Mischungskorrosion ). An earthquake several thousand years ago broke several of

196-698: Was reportedly visited by Herzog Ulrich von Württemberg on 20 May 1516 and Vilenica Cave in Slovenia where entrance fees were taken from 1633 on. In 1649, the first "authorized" cave guide started guiding Baumannshöhle in the Harz in Germany though this cave was intensively visited much earlier. The development of electric lighting enabled the illumination of show caves. Early experiments with electric light in caves were carried out by Lieutenant Edward Cracknel in 1880 at Chifley Cave , Jenolan Caves , Australia . In 1881, Sloupsko-Šošůvské Jeskyně , Czech Republic , became

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