A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. Caves form naturally by the weathering of rock and they often extend deep underground. The word "cave" can also refer to much smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos.
Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the environment that surrounds the caves. Exploring a cave for recreation or science may be called caving, potholing, or, in Canada and the United States, spelunking (see caving).
Read more about Cave: Types and Formation, Physical Patterns, Geographic Distribution, Records and Superlatives, Ecology, Archaeological and Cultural Importance, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the word cave:
“Mankind which began in a cave and behind a windbreak will end in the disease-soaked ruins of a slum.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)
“If the sea were ink
For the words of my Lord,
the sea would be spent before the Words of my Lord are spent.”
—Qur’An. The Cave 18:109, ed. Arthur J. Arberry (1955)
“The use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation and exhilaration for all men. We seem to be touched by a wand, which makes us dance and run about happily, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open air. This is the effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and all poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)