“At the western shores of Messinian Mani peninsula, in south Greece, 49km to south-east of Kalamata city and south of Agios Dimitrios village, an impressive, composite karstic system is developed below and above sea-level (Papadopoulou, 1999). It comprises ‘‘Selinitsa’’ Cave and ‘‘Drakos’’ underground river, which are located on the shoreline and in + 8m a.s.l. and -10m, respectively. This karstic system is over 4km in length, comprising the fourth longest cave system in Greece. It is developed in limestone benches of Plattenkalk unit tilted at 10o, which are characteristic in the wider area.
‘‘Selinitsa’’ Cave has about 3.000m of mapped passages, of which most of passages (about 2.000m) are terrestrial. The cave passages are vadose and phreatic. The cave presents rich speleothemic decorations and has the largest in Hellenic region single collapse chamber of 250x200m in cross dimensions.
‘‘Drakos’’ underground river has 1.232m in length and is developed entirely below the sea level. Its entrance lies at depth of 10m but cave passages are developed in three levels, with the deepest parts at -48m. In the third level and at -28m depth, ‘‘Drakos’’ is connected with ‘‘Selinitsa’’ Cave through a chimney-shaped passage of 28m length. The presence of a big chamber of 50x100m of cross dimensions and of a big stalagmite in the eastern entrance, is notable, too. Generally, speleothermic decoration in ‘‘Drakos’’ is poor. Passages are exclusive phreatic and siphons act as lifting tubes, transferring water drained from ‘‘Selinitsa’’, underwater from -28m to -10m.”
(Kyriaki Papadopoulou-Vrynioti and Isidoros Kampolis, “Formation and development of a karstic system below and above sea level in Messinian Mani Peninsula (S. Greece)”, p. 17-21, Speleogenesis and Evolution of Karst Aquifers, Issue 12, 2012)
Since we were kids, my brother and I were fascinated by the stories of the elders regarding the cave of Katafygi Selinitsas! The cave was supposedly so long that it reached the outskirts of Sparta, countless people would have been lost inside, there would be bottomless chasms that split the floor in two etc. etc.! You can guess what a child’s imagination would create, fuelled by such stories!
Because of this way of thinking, Katafygi remained for us for decades something that made a good story, but that was also out of limits for the common people. It was only shortly after our visit to Katafygio Vatsinidi on 08/09/2012 (see links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ_hoSpuunY
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoRhk-Ztcnk )
that the idea formed in our minds to try to organize an expedition to explore Katafygi Selinitsas!
This series of 4 videos is the result of our expedition; in 55 minutes it describes in brief our 5,5 hours of adventure into the depths of the underworld, as well as the 6-month preparation period we had for this journey! I hope you enjoy watching them as much as we did making them!
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