The
Roodafshan Cave is located in the Roodafshan valley that lies to the east of
Tehran, on the main route from
Tehran to Firoozkooh and near to the small village Roodafshan.
About 35,000 years ago, due to the Damavand's volcanic activities, the entrance of the cave that was hidden behind a big and huge rock, was cracked and little by little, it propagated.
At the right hand-side of the cave, there is a strong wall, and at the left of it, there is another deep split. According to the opinion of archeologists the skeleton discovered here belonged to the Achaemenian or the Sassanid period.
The length of this spacious cave is 1,502 m with a vertical distance of -90.6 m. The Roodafshan Entrance Hall with 168 m length, 94 m width, 40 m high and 11,395 m2 floor area is the second biggest documented cave chamber in
Iran.
It takes about 1 hour climbing to the entrance of the cave and the entrance is visible from the top or the road that ends to the starting point of climbing.
The cave has plentiful of stalactites and stalagmites. Although
...see more the cave is wet, you can’t see any running water.
The depth of the cave is 700 or 800 m. At the end, there is an elevated passage to a small room. By using a ladder, we can climb into the small room.
This room leads to the other sections of the cave through a narrow hallway. In this part of cave, the water is stagnant on some parts, but water current could be detected underneath.
The average temperature inside the cave is 6 degrees centigrade and the length of the main road is about 550 m. The distance between two halls is 20 m.
For the tourists it is better to go with a guide and have sufficient means of caving.
The cave is formed within a distinctive geological breakdown area, which can be observed up to the summit region of the mountain in which the cave is found and leads directly under the main ridge of the massif.
The cave is north south oriented and fissure controlled.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.irpedia.com/Iran-tourist-attractions
http://www.caving-in-Iran.org
http://www.mountain-forecast.com
