Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park: The first wonders of the cave

Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh province - Central Vietnam. With a total area of ​​343,300ha, in which the core zone is 123,300ha and the buffer zone is 220,000ha, Phong Nha - Ke Bang is in the districts of Quang Ninh, Bo Trach and Minh Hoa, 50km northwest of Dong Hoi city. .

Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park: World natural heritage

Besides the historical values ​​of geology, topography, geomorphology, Phong Nha - Ke Bang is also blessed with natural and majestic landscapes. Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park contains many mysteries of nature, caves like splendid castles in the limestone mountains created from millions of years ago.

Phong Nha - Ke Bang is considered a huge geological museum of great value and global significance because of its complex geographical structure, gathering various types of rocks such as sandstone, quartz, schist, stone. Limestone containing silicon, mac-bow stone, granodiorite, diorite, aplite, pegmatite . Phong Nha - Ke Bang also contains complicated geological development history, lasting from 400 million years ago of the earth. Over the period of important tectonics and the phase of fracture movement, coordination, bending has created the same mountain ranges and subsidence sedimentary basins. These changes have also contributed to the diversity of geology, topography and geomorphology.

Phong Nha - Ke Bang limestone region has global characteristics in many stages of development from the late Ordovician - Silur (463,9 - 430 million years ago) to the Quaternary (1.75 million years ago). A characteristic feature here is the underground river system and caves in the limestone mountains.

The non-limestone geomorphology is characterized by low mountains with vegetation covering the surface. The erosion process creates terraces along the valleys of the Son and Chay rivers or on the banks of the central limestone massifs. Transitional terrain areas are different forms alternating between limestone mountains.

Located in the region with an average annual rainfall is quite high but the water here has soaked and underground in the limestone mountains, spent tens of millions of years has created countless caves in this area. In Phong Nha - Ke Bang there are about 300 large and small caves divided into three main systems: Phong Nha cave system, Vom cave system and Ruc Mon cave system.

Phong Nha cave system has a total length of about 80km originating from the south of Ke Bang limestone mountain area. The main door of this dynamic system is Khe Ry cave and En cave at an altitude of about 300m above the sea level. The caves in this system are distributed in the form of branches running in the direction of northeast - southwest.

Vom cave system with a total length of over 35km originates from Ruc Ca Roong cave, located at an altitude of 360m above the sea level and ends with Vom cave. Vom cave system is located on the axis with the general direction of south - north. Ruc Ca Roong River, hidden in a rocky mountain, appears on narrow and deep valleys, eventually pouring into Chay River at the mouth of Vom Cave.

Ruc Mon cave system located in Minh Hoa district is also one of the big caves but not yet exploited much.

Some typical caves in Phong Nha - Ke Bang are Phong Nha cave, Tien Son cave, Thien Duong cave, Dark cave, En cave, Khe Ry cave, especially Son Doong cave is considered the largest cave in the world. with a height of about 200m, there are places up to 250m, 200m wide, at least 8.5km long.

With the characteristics of topography, climate, land and hydrology of Phong Nha - Ke Bang, there is a rich, diverse and unique flora form . As a result of the survey and survey activities, Phong Nha - Ke Bang has recorded a large carpet of tropical forests, covering 93.57% of the natural area, of which nearly 83.74% is covered by forests. pristine or almost primeval forest. The abundance, diversity of ingredients, types of rare and precious animal and plant species in Phong Nha - Ke Bang is an inevitable consequence of habitat conditions and a typical feature of forest ecology here.

In this park, scientists have recorded 2,400 species of higher plants with 208 species of orchids, including many rare and precious species recorded in the Red Book of Vietnam and IUCN. Besides, there are 140 species of animals, 356 species of birds, 97 species of reptiles, 47 species of amphibians, 162 species of fish, 369 species of insects, of which many belong to the list of Red Book of Vietnam and the world such as: Sao La, Mang Lon, Mang Truong Son, Ha Tinh langur . Phong Nha - Ke Bang is meant as a giant creature museum in Vietnam.

Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park has twice been recognized as a World Natural Heritage by UNESCO, the first in July 2003 at the 27th meeting in Paris (France) and the second in July. / 2015 at the 39th meeting in Bonn (Federal Republic of Germany).