Cave
The enormous hall is 107 m (351 ft) high, 130 m (430 ft) long and 65 m (213 ft) large. A steep yet comfortable path with atmospheric electric lighting allows the visitor to spend about 45 minutes in this impressive underground world with its rich calcite concretions, the highest of which is no less than 12 m (39 ft) high.
Its exceptional spatial characteristics, and the constant temperatures in the giant cave throughout the year, have led to the placement of two geodetic pendula (which hang down from about 100m above 100 m (330 ft) and are the longest in the world)) and other scientific instruments.
Read more about this topic: Grotta Gigante
Famous quotes containing the word cave:
“I was thewed like an Auroch bull,
And tusked like the great Cave Bear;
And you, my sweet, from head to feet,
Were gowned in your glorious hair.”
—Langdon Smith (1858–1908)
“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)
“What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato’s cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don’t know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)