洞穴 23

Beneath this arid landscape lies a subterranean wonderland. Without water one might not expect to find any caves, but beneath these rolling desert slopes in the United States lies one of the longest, deepest and most surprising caves in the world. Its secrets remained unknown until 1986, when cavers dug through several metres of loose rock at the bottom of this pit. They named the cave "Lechuguilla" and since this discovery more than 120 miles of passageways have been mapped. When the first explorers descended, no one guessed at the sheer size of this cave. But even that was not going to be the biggest surprise. Little did they realise that Lechuguilla would soon be regarded by cavers the world over as the most beautiful of all caves.

在这个贫瘠的地方竟然隐藏着一个地下奇境。在没有水的地方人们通常认为不会有洞穴，但是美国的这片沙漠坡地下却隐藏着世界上最长、最深而且是最惊人的洞穴之一。这一秘密直到1986年才被发现，当时洞穴探险者在这个坑底挖开了几米深的松动的岩石。他们把这个洞叫做楚基耶洞，自从发现以来，人们已经测绘了其中的约200公里长的通道。 第一批探险者进入其中时，没有人会想到它如此之大，但这还不是最大的惊喜。他们根本想不到，他们很快发现，它竟然被洞穴探险者们认为它是全世界所有洞穴中最漂亮的一个。