The Cango Caves are found in the Swartberg Mountain Range just out side the town of Oudtshoorn (30km). The caves are in a limestone belt measuring 1,5km in width and almost 16km in length, and are considered one of the natural wonders of the world. The Caves boasts some of the biggest stalagmite and stalactites formations in the world.
In 1780 the Cango Caves were discovered (by white people, the Khoi San had been using the caves systems for 100's of years), a herder, Klaas Windvogel, in search of lost cattle stumbled upon the cave entrance.
The largest chamber is the 107m Grand Hall. The cave extends for 5.3km, in a series of large chambers connected by low passages and crawls.
The present tourist route extends for 1,2km into the cave, with a further 4,1km being kept closed to the public for conservation reasons.
Slowly, over the years, more and more chambers and tunnels were discovered and in 1891 the first tour was conducted through the Cango Caves. It was only between 1972 and 1975 that Cango 2, 3, 4 and 5 were discovered.
The Caves are open to the public every day of the year except on Christmas Day.
The cave is located in the Swartberg Mountain Range, a limestone belt which is 1,5km wide and almost 16km long. The limestones are Cambrian oolithic limestones formed by chemical processes about 750 Million years ago. They do not consist of animal shells and do not contain any fossils. The caves were formed during the last 20Ma, first being water filled for a very long period. The draining rivers cut into the rock and reached the level of tha caves about 4Ma ago.
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