Sung Sot Cave - Surprising Cave
Halong Bay, Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam
Sung Sot Cave is one of the largest and most beautiful caves in Halong Bay. Located in Bo Hon Island, Sung Sot Cave is a place where many rocky islands concentrated having distinct and strange shapes, which cannot find in other ones.
Halong Bay is one of natural wonders in Vietnam which is recognized by UNESCO as the natural world heritage. A long time ago, the geological formation of limestone in this beautiful bay took place approximately 500 million years. The combination of environment, weather, geology and geomorphology has brought the land a high biodiversity with a variety of stunning landscapes including green forests, beautiful islands and majestic caves. Especially, undergoing over 20 million years of Karst revolution, many picturesque caves were formed in Halong Bay. Nowadays, these caves become ideal attractions in Halong welcoming both domestic and international tourists visiting. Along with Thien Cung Cave and Dau Go Cave, Sung Sot Cave is one of the largest and most beautiful caves in Halong.
Setting foot in Sung Sot Cave at the first moment, tourists may realize that the cave has a very small area. However, when they pass through a rocky slot and enter inside, they will be surprised by the huge expansion of the area inside. In the past, when French tourists visited Sung Sot Cave, they were so amazed by the majestic beauty and the huge expansion of the area (about 10,000 m2 in width) that somebody exclaimed "Grotto des Surprises", which means a cave of the surprising things. From that time, the cave has been called as Sung Sot Cave (Surprising Cave).
The road visiting Sung Sot Cave is under a canopy of leaves. Walking through steep stone steps, tourists may have the feeling of climbing on mountains and experience the excitement as if they are stepping to the sky. Sung Sot Cave is divided into two main areas. The first one is like an immerse theater. The ceiling of this area is covered by stalactites and stalagmites, which looks like a silky "velvet carpet" with beautiful motifs or a myriad of glistering and aglow chandeliers. It has been said that you are like in an illusory world when sightseeing in this area.
Entering in the second area through a small road, visitors can enjoy the completely different space in comparison to the first one, which can accommodate thousands of people. Right next to the entrance is a horse made from stone and a long sword. According to an ancient lore, Thanh Giong (Phu Dong Thien Vuong), a mythical folk hero of Vietnam's history, defeated An aggressors. Later on, after helping local residents to expel demons, he left the horse and the sword in order to reassure people and banish demons and flew to the sky. It has been said that today there are many objects and sceneries in Sung Sot Cave considered as the traces of the fierce battles between Thanh Giong and invaders. Especially, the footprints of the horse became small ponds along with crumbled rocks.
Going deeply inside Sung Sot Cave, there are many surprising sceneries waiting for tourists to explore such as stalactites having different and special shapes, an old banyan tree having luxuriant foliage, dinosaurs, seabear, etc. Reaching the highest peak of the cave, tourists have a great chance to admire the beautiful landscapes of royal garden, clear water lakes, some types of trees and birds living here. In addition, the cave is often disturbed by monkeys coming here to find fruits and foods, which make tourists feel eager and excited with the lively landscapes of Sung Sot Cave.
Sung Sot Cave has been bringing tourists many surprising and interesting things as its name implies. Having the spectacular beauty, in the early 2012, Sung Sot Cave was voted as one of 10 most beautiful caves in the world by the Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agencies of Czech. This Cave promises to be one of the most interesting attractions in Halong.
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- Halong Bay
- Halong tourism
- Sung Sot Cave
- Halong
- Halong attractions
- Halong Bay caves
- Halong Bay tourism
- caves in Halong Bay
- attractions in Halong
- Surprising Cave
