| Cross Cave | |
|---|---|
| Cold Cave under Cross Mountain | |
 Cross Cave at the Port of Venice (Beneški pristan) | |
  | |
| Location | southeastern Slovenia |
| Coordinates | 45°44′39″N 14°27′52″E / 45.74417°N 14.46444°E |
| Depth | 32 m (105 ft) |
| Length | 8,273 m (27,142 ft) |
| Discovery | 1832 |
| Geology | dolomite, limestone |
| Entrances | 1 |
| Access | by foot and by boat |
| Cave survey | plan |
| Registry | Cave E-Cadastre[1] |
Cross Cave[2] (Slovene: Križna jama, German: Kreuzberghöhle[3]), also named Cold Cave under Cross Mountain (Mrzla jama pod Križno goro), is a cave in Slovenia's Lož Valley, in the area between the Lož Karst Field, Cerknica Karst Field, and Bloke Plateau. The cave is named after nearby Holy Cross Church in Podlož.[4] The cave is particularly noted among Karst caves for its chain of over 45 subterranean lakes of emerald green water. Extremely slow-growing calcareous formations (up to 0.1 mm per year) and their fragility are the main obstacle to large-scale tourism in the cave and limit daily tourist visits to the flooded part of the cave to four people. As a result, the Cross Cave is among the best-preserved caves, opened to the public in Slovenia. The cave was prepared for visits in the 1950s by the Lož Valley Tourist Association. It was later managed by the Ljubljana Cave Research Society. Since the 1990s, it has been cared for by the Friends of Cross Cave Association (Društvo ljubiteljev Križne jame). With 45 species of organisms, some not discovered until 2000, Cross Cave is the fourth-largest cave ecosystem in the world in terms of biodiversity.[5] The cave was first documented in 1832, but the part of the cave that includes lakes and stream passages was first explored by Slovene cavers in 1926.
On January 6, 2024, five people were trapped in the cave due to high water levels caused by heavy rainfall.[6][7] They were rescued on January 8, 2024.[8]
- ^ "Križna jama" (in Slovenian). Cave E-Cadastre. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
- ^ Copeland, Fanny Susan; Kuščar, Ludvik (1930). "The Unexplored Caves of Slovenia". Discovery: The Popular Journal of Knowledge. 11: 160.
- ^ Laas und Čabar (map, 1:75,000). Vienna: K.u.k. Militärgeographisches Institut. 1903.
- ^ Notranjski regijski park: Križna jama Archived 2015-01-09 at the Wayback Machine (in Slovene)
- ^ Prelovšek, Mitja. "Križna jama" [Cross Cave]. In Šmid Hribar, Mateja; Golež, Gregor; Podjed, Dan; Kladnik, Drago; Erhartič, Bojan; Pavlin, Primož; Ines, Jerele (eds.). Enciklopedija naravne in kulturne dediščine na Slovenskem – DEDI [Encyclopedia of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Slovenia] (in Slovenian). Retrieved 20 August 2012.
- ^ "5 people are trapped in a cave in Slovenia after heavy rainfall causes water levels to rise". AP News. 2024-01-07. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
- ^ "Rescue begins for five trapped deep inside flooded Slovenian cave". Reuters. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
- ^ "Peterica po skoraj treh dneh rešena iz Križne jame. Vsi so zdravi in v dobrem psihičnem stanju". RTV SLO (in Slovenian). Retrieved January 8, 2024.