The light columns
The sight that made the cave internationally known.
Mincov — CC BY 3.0 · Красимир Косев — CC BY 3.0 · Красимир Косев — CC BY 3.0 · Красимир Косев — CC BY 3.0
Three things nearby make an excellent day. The **Krushuna falls** about fifteen kilometres away: a chain of small travertine falls with turquoise water on an easy boardwalk that suits families — the exact opposite of the hard mountain waterfalls. The town of **Lovech** with its covered bridge, the only one of its kind in Bulgaria, and its fortress. And **Saeva Dupka cave** if you want a lit cave with a guided tour. The whole area lies between Veliko Tarnovo and Lovech and is driven.
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Devetashka Cave is one of the most striking interiors in Europe, for a simple reason: **seven enormous openings in its roof** send vertical columns of light down into a chamber about a hundred metres across and thirty high. The entrance itself is a vast arch thirty-five metres wide, with the river Osam running beneath it. Inside is a single open space rather than a maze of passages, so it can be seen whole without equipment — you walk in, stand, and look up. The place has been inhabited since the Neolithic, and excavation has found occupation layers reaching back seventy thousand years. In the 1950s it was used as a secret military store, and the concrete structures remain. **Read this before planning: the cave is home to about thirty thousand bats of protected species, and its inner part closes during the breeding season — usually from June to about the end of July.** The front section stays open. **Entry is free.**
The sight that made the cave internationally known.
Thirty-five metres wide above the river Osam.
Near Devetaki village, Lovech province