2025Budapest Cave Exploration|trip.com

Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is not only the pearl of the Danube, but also hides the only explorable urban underground cave system in Europe. Millions of years ago, volcanic activity and hot spring erosion carved out a fantastic maze with a total length of more than 40 kilometers at the bottom of the Buda Mountains. Palvolgyi Cave and Semler Cave are famous for their honeycomb-shaped caves and stalactites. The twisted rock corridors are covered with silica crystals, and the snowflakes and coral-like calcite clusters formed by hot spring precipitation flash like stars under the searchlight. Explorers can wear professional equipment, crawl through narrow fossil passages, cross the calcified pools formed by underground hot spring erosion, and occasionally encounter prehistoric shell marks on the cave walls. The air-raid shelters left over from World War II and the medieval wine cellars are intertwined, and the traces of gunpowder smoke can still be felt by touching the rock walls. Professional guides often design "Earth Center Jigsaw Puzzle" challenges to connect geological wonders with historical codes. The hot spring steam is lingering in the depths of the cave, making this underground time and space travel in the city a three-dimensional epic of nature and humanity.