Cliff path
Cut into the rock.
Wolfgang Kritzinger — CC BY-SA 3.0 at · Bahnfrend — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bahnfrend — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Flocci Nivis — CC BY 4.0 · Bahnfrend — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Eisriesenwelt, German for World of the Ice Giants, is a natural limestone and ice cave at Werfen, Austria, about 40 km south of Salzburg. It lies inside the Hochkogel mountain in the Tennengebirge range of the Alps and is the largest ice cave in the world, stretching more than 42 km and visited by about 200,000 people a year. The cave sits on the rim of the largest karst plateau in the Salzburg Alps and was carved long ago by the Salzach River. Only the first kilometre, the part open to visitors, is covered in ice; the rest is limestone. The ice forms from melting snow that drains into the cave and freezes in winter, while in summer a cold draught blowing out of the cave keeps it from melting. The natural scientist Anton Posselt officially discovered it in 1879. The cave mouth sits high on a towering cliff, reached by a winding path cut into the rock with wide views over the Salzach valley and the peaks around. Inside, halls of blue and white ice stretch away in shapes like frozen waterfalls, columns and curtains. Visitors climb to the entrance and then enter on a guided tour of about an hour and a quarter there and back, reaching the Ice Palace 400 metres underground. The cave is open from 1 May to late October; it stays below freezing inside, so winter clothing is required, and photography is not allowed.
Cut into the rock.
Blue and white.
The Salzach valley.
Hochkogel, Werfen, Salzburg, Austria
Warm clothes; it is below freezing.
May to late October.