Saint Marcel d’Ardèche, like other caves, has beautiful petroglyphs and even ancient paintings, but what makes it most famous is its rainbow pools. Pools with colored water and its radiance dazzles the eyes of every viewer. The inside of the cave is decorated with colored lights and these lights have multiplied its beauty. When you visit this cave, you will experience a historical and exploratory journey.
The story of the formation of this cave dates back to millions of years ago. In 1836, when a French hunter was chasing his prey, he suddenly came across this cave. He was surprised to encounter such a phenomenon, and shortly after its discovery, the cave quickly became known and is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in France
In this cave, special names have been chosen for different phenomena, its collection of fossils is called an underground gallery, its entrance is called a luxurious church and its pools are called “Fountain of the Virgin”. At the beginning of entering the cave, you have to walk 9 km to reach the center of the cave. This part, which is called the cathedral, with its length of 9 km and beautiful petroglyphs, attracts the attention of the visitors to the cave, and they prepare for a unique experience in this cave by seeing the beauties of this part.
In this cave you can see a network of waters that are in pools with a length of 1,968 feet. The contrasting colors of this pond make it look like a movie, which of course can be seen in the French movie “Deux Mondes”. In this cave, like other caves, there are petroglyphs with special shapes. Some of them are vertical and some are on the roof and walls of the cave and have given a special beauty to the cave. There are crystals in this cave that look like snowflakes and it has made them attractive in every way. These crystals, when combined with cave lighting, appear as colored diamonds that will multiply its beauty.
All rocks that form after the formation of the cave space due to the dripping of stagnant water are called speleothem or cave formations. When water enters the caves through the crevices, some of the compounds present in the cave walls, such as calcite, aragonite or gypsum, dissolve in the water, and then when this solution reaches the air-filled areas of the caves, carbon dioxide is released and this evaporates the compounds. It becomes. Over time, which may span tens of thousands of years, the gradual deposition of these evaporated materials on cave surfaces forms a speleothem. The speed of speleothem formation depends on the amount of carbon dioxide in the solution, temperature and other factors.
speleothem usually occurs in limestone caves and caves composed of soluble dolomitic rocks. A cave in which there is moisture and speleothem grows in it is called a living cave or an active cave and a cave in which there is no moisture and cave stones do not grow is called a dead cave or a dry cave. Stalactite and stalagmite are the most famous cave stones.
When water enters the earth’s crust, it may encounter traces of metals and other minerals while dissolving the lime, dissolving some of them and taking them into the caves. The reason why the cave springs are colorful is because of the dissolution of these minerals in water. Milky white is the pure color of calcareous formations; And other dyes are the result of salts in calcium carbonate. Of course, there are times when a part of the limestone decorations is seen in several colors, which indicates the presence of several different types of materials within the layers of the earth. These substances and salts cause the following colors: Sulfur: Yellow | Iron: Black | Copper: Rusty green | Clay: Red | Coal: Black | Mercury: Reddish orange
