On June 3, Jungle Boss Company received word of a cave from a forest-goer and its exploration team coordinated with the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park management to begin a search.
After exploring it for six days, the team said the cave stretches three kilometers and named it Thang (Victory Cave) after the local resident who first found it.
It lies along the route between Elephant Cave and Ma Da Lake in Ma Da Valley in a protected zone in the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park in central Vietnam's Quang Tri Province.
Starting from kilometer 32 on the western branch of Ho Chi Minh Road in Thuong Trach Commune, the team hiked for two hours to reach the entrance.
The opening, five square meters wide, sits high on a mountainside.
To reach its interior, the experts rappelled down a 20-meter drop. The chamber opens up with stalactites, and has two entrances that lead into separate branches.
The cave is covered in stalactites. Rock formations and stalactite variations appear in clusters throughout.
Shaped over millions of years by dripping water, stalactites are formed by accumulating mineral deposits.
The team reported finding cave pearls scattered inside rocky hollows.
Cave pearls form in calcium-rich pools as water seeps through the cave ceiling and drips onto the floor. Water seeping through limestone carries calcium carbonate, which coats grains of sand or pebbles to form the pearls. Over thousands of years, layers of calcium build up into concentric rings, while the flow of water causes the pearls to roll and rub against one another, smoothing their surfaces.
Depending on the mineral content of the water, the pearls can be yellow or white.
Cave expert Le Luu Dung, who took part in the team, said Thang Cave stands out as unusual.
"The caves I've explored before have wide entrances that open into wide chambers. But Thang Cave has a small entrance leading into a wide chamber. Inside, the stalactite formations are multicolored."
He said the cave contains a calcium pool spanning thousands of square meters.
The Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park management has given the green light for Jungle Boss to develop the cave for tourism as part of a two-day, one-night trip exploring the Ma Da Valley and Tra Ang Cave.
