The Untold Truth Of Inverse Everest

Sure, Mount Everest (Chomolungma) may be the highest point on Earth but what about the deepest points on Earth? The deepest known point in the world is the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench. Reaching a depth of seven miles, the Challenger Deep runs deeper than an inverse Everest, according to Geology.

But reaching the depths of the Mariana Trench isn't exactly like scaling the top of Chomolungma. So what about the deepest point on land?

Known as Inverse Everest (per Filmdzsungel Stúdió), Veryovkina Cave may either be a spelunker's dream or their nightmare. Running deep into the Earth, Veryovkina Cave isn't the safest place to go spelunking. But ever since it was discovered, explorers have been going deeper and deeper, trying to find what lies on the way to the center of the Earth. And to this day, new corridors of the cave may have yet to be discovered. 

Located in the Republic of Abkhazia, a separatist state in Georgia, Veryovkina Cave is the deepest known cave in the world, measuring up to 1.3 miles down. According to Atlas Obscura, in addition to Veryovkina Cave, Abkhazia is also home to the second, third, and fourth deepest caves in the world.

Veryovkina Cave was first documented in 1968. But at the time, less than 400 feet were mapped. It took 50 years for its true depths to be documented. Up until March 2018, Krubera cave was considered the deepest cave in the world. But after Pavel Demidov and his spelunking team reached a terminal in Veryovkina Cave, it became the deepest.

A round-trip expedition through the cave is incredibly dangerous and takes the most experienced spelunkers roughly a week. And sudden floods can overwhelm the bottom of the cave in a matter of minutes, which leaves spelunkers little time to reach safety. Robbie Shone, a National Geographic cave photographer, witnessed the flooding firsthand. "The most enormous torrent of white water appeared out of this hole, and I just stood open-mouthed at the sight of this huge white wall of water entering our little home."

Initially it was believed that Veryovkina cave only flooded in the winter, but explorers in September 2018 learned the hard way that this wasn't the case. Luckily, everyone survived and Petr Lyubimov, who was part of the expedition, documented the expedition's quick escape from the flood water. The harrowing scene can be found on YouTube.