A Karst Cave of Perpetual Ice
The Kungur Ice Cave is a karst formation, created as water dissolved gypsum and anhydrite rock over an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 years. Located on the right bank of the Sylva River, the cave system has a known length of about 5.7 kilometers, with tourist routes covering up to 2 kilometers. The cave contains 58 grottoes and approximately 70 underground lakes. The largest of these, the Great Underground Lake, has a surface area of 1,460 square meters and a depth of up to 5 meters. The water temperature in most lakes hovers just above 0°C year-round.
The cave's main feature is its permanent ice. This is maintained by a specific microclimate created by the cave's structure. Its entrances act as a natural cold trap; cold, dense air sinks into the entrance grottoes during the harsh Ural winters and remains there through the summer. This trapped air keeps the initial chambers, such as the Diamond and Polar grottoes, at sub-zero temperatures year-round, allowing ice crystals, stalactites, and stalagmites to remain. The cave features a full range of climatic zones, from permanently freezing areas near the entrance to zones with stable, above-zero temperatures deeper inside. The volume of perennial ice is estimated at 350 cubic meters.
A Natural Laboratory
The first known plan of the cave was created in 1703 by geographer Semyon Remezov, who was dispatched by order of Peter the Great. Organized tourism began in 1914, when Alexander Khlebnikov rented the site and began guiding visitors through its passages. Today, the cave receives about 100,000 visitors annually.
The cave is also a natural laboratory for the Mining Institute of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its unique environment allows for the study of speleogenesis (cave formation), hydrogeology, and biology. The cave hosts an endemic crustacean, Crangonyx chlebnikovi. The cave's geology is also known for its 146 "organ pipes"—tall, vertical shafts that reach toward the surface, some as high as 22 meters. These structures are the result of water dissolving rock along vertical fractures in the gypsum and anhydrite strata. The air within the cave has an elevated concentration of easy air ions, a factor that has led to research into its potential for speleotherapy.