Underground River in Palawan, Philippines
Said to be the longest navigable underground river in the world, the Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan, Philippines is an 8.2-kilometer river winding beneath a mountain range. It passes through the St. Paul Underground River Cave which opens to the South China Sea, where it empties out. To journey through the entire cave system means 24 kilometers through the subterranean realm.
Appointed as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, the Underground River boasts of stunning cave interiors: enormous stalagmites and stalactites, the 360-meter-long cave dome, subterranean waterfalls, a water hole, and numerous endemic island flora and fauna. Because of its exceptional beauty, it was also named as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in 2004.
To this day, the cave has still not been explored completely since deeper areas are deprived of oxygen. To get to the Underground River, visitors must hike from the nearby town of Sabang to the National Park underneath the Saint Paul Mountain Range 50 kilometers north of the Palawan capital.
