The Bulgarian Devetashka Cave with its 70,000-year-old settlements
Visitors to the Devetashka Cave in Bulgaria are struck with awe by its immense size and natural beauty. This vast cavern has served as a shelter for human groups for over 70,000 years. Today, with no human inhabitants, it is home to around 30,000 bats.
The Devetashka Cave, known as Devetashka Peshtera, is located in Bulgaria, about 18 kilometers north of Lovech, near the village of Devetaki.
It is a massive karst cave formed by the dissolution of soluble rock, characterized by incredible sinkholes, secondary caves, and underground drainage systems.
The cave has been used as a shelter by humans since the Middle Paleolithic period, around 70,000 years ago, continuing to be utilized for tens of thousands of years. Now that humans are no longer present, the cave has become a haven for more than 30,000 bats.
The cave is truly immense: it is about 2 km long, with a corridor-like entrance that reaches 60 meters in height. In some spots, the ceiling reaches up to 100 meters high, along which there are seven enormous natural skylights, earning the cave the name Maarata or Oknata (the eyes).
About 200 meters from the entrance, the cave splits into two branches. On the left side, a small river flows through the center, forming miniature lakes and waterfalls, eventually flowing into the Osam River. The right side, on the other hand, is warm and dry, featuring several chambers and ending in a circular hall, known as the Altar.
The cave is distinguished by the presence of incredible stalactites and stalagmites, streams, majestic natural domes, and arches of superb beauty. Observing the cave, one can understand why it was chosen as a dwelling for thousands of years: beautiful and comfortable.
Studies reveal that the cave has been inhabited almost continuously since the Middle Paleolithic. The earliest traces of human presence date back to around 70,000 years ago. Furthermore, the cave represents one of the richest sources of Neolithic artifacts in the world (6th – 4th millennium BC).
The Devetashka Cave was rediscovered in 1921, but it was fully uncovered only in 1950, when the original plan was to transform the cave into a giant warehouse. In the 1950s, the cave was indeed used as a military base and storage for oil reserves.
This use caused the destruction of some natural formations inside. Even today, the reinforced concrete bases where the large oil tanks rested are still visible. A part of the railway built to transport the reserves can still be seen on the other side of the river.
The cave probably became widely known after being used as the set for some scenes from the movie "The Expendables 2", filmed in 2011, where Sylvester Stallone lands his plane in Jean-Claude Van Damme's underground hideout.
After the release of the movie, local naturalists recorded a significant decline in the bat population, which decreased due to the stress caused during filming. The Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court eventually ruled that the filming violated the current environmental regulations in Bulgaria.
