Pestera Muierilor

Pestera Muierilor is located in the Southern Carpathians, in the right side of the Galbenul Gorge. It consists of a maze of passages totaling more than 8 km in length, spread across 4 levels. The cave is famous for the discovery of early modern human remains c. 35 ka old (Soficaru et al., 2006), palaeolithic artifacts and a large deposit of fossil remains of cave bears (Ursus spelaeus), cave lions, hyaenas, etc. It was the first cave of Romania fitted with electric light (1963) and it typically has more than 100,000 visitors/year. The visitation flow is uni-directional, i.e. tourists enter the cave through the northern entrance and exit it through the southern one. Cave lighting still uses incandescent bulbs which led to the development of abundant lampenflora on cave walls, speleothems and fossil remains.

General view of Muierilor Cave. Note the high-power incandescent bulbs and the lampenflora covering the

ceiling and left wall.

A cave bear skeleton assembled and mounted in July 2013 already affected by fungi growth (the white spots).

Drip logger installed in Station PM 5.