00:00Many caves were discovered in the 19th century after Gibraltar was a strategic base for the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
00:11And just like the modern team, many officers stationed here became pioneer cave explorers.
00:20In the 19th century in particular, there wasn't a lot going on in terms of war.
00:24There was no war effort at the time.
00:26But there were a lot of military personnel stationed in Gibraltar.
00:29And now they were getting bored, they were trying to find ways of using their spare time.
00:33And cave exploration was definitely something that they got into.
00:38A remarkable amount of historic graffiti speaks to the volume of people who have set foot in here over time.
00:47But while many have visited these caverns, it wasn't until the caving unit carried out a systematic exploration in 2012 that they were comprehensively mapped.
00:58Until then, myths circulated that this cave was a bottomless pit or even a secret tunnel from Africa through which Gibraltar's famous monkeys, the Barbary macaques, had migrated.
01:11The team discovered that while not endless, the cave was of substantial depth, uncovering two completely uncharted passages running deep underground.
01:21But some of Gibraltar's unexplored caverns cannot be reached by normal caving alone.
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