Womb cave description and photos - Bulgaria: Kardzhali (Topic)

Womb Cave description and photos - Bulgaria: Kardzhali. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The Utroba cave is located near the village of Nenkovo in southern Bulgaria, in the vicinity of the town of Kardzhali, at a distance of about 17 kilometers from it. This cave was relatively recently discovered by archaeologists, their scientific research proved that this cave is a Thracian sanctuary dating back to the 11-10th centuries BC. In ancient times, not far from the cave, a whole ritual complex was built, consisting of special niches in the rocks, which were used for winemaking and transportation of the finished drink (in Bulgarian, these structures are called sharapani). The Thracians used wine in their rituals, which were carried out in the cave of the Utroba.

The cave owes its name to its appearance - it is a long natural natural gap in the rock, located horizontally, which resembles a woman's womb. The ancient Thracians also had a hand in decorating the walls of the cave. The height of the passage is about three meters, the width is two and a half meters, and the depth is 22 meters. Inside the cave, at its very end, the creators of the sanctuary carved an altar, the height of which is no more than a meter. Water constantly flows down the cave walls.

Every day through the hole the sun penetrates here at noon, but only once a year - March 20 or 21, on the vernal equinox, the sunbeam expands, falls exactly on the altar and stays on it for several minutes. The ancient Thracians considered this process a symbol of fertility: the cave is the personification of the mother earth goddess, and the sun god impregnates her. A sacred marriage is made between the sun and the rock, which symbolizes the rebirth of life. This belief is supported by the very shape of the cave. Probably, that the folklore about mysterious conceptions and births in caves is a later adaptation of an ancient cult. Ancient rituals, in which young people were taken to a cave and left there for some time, have a similar meaning - initiation into maturity of young men and women.

The Womb Cave is a unique natural and cultural phenomenon, there are no other similar ones in the world .

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Topic: Womb cave description and photos - Bulgaria: Kardzhali.