The columns
Stalactites and stalagmites met to form complete stone pillars.
PaigePhault โ CC0 ยท Itto Ogami โ CC BY 3.0 ยท Itto Ogami โ CC BY 3.0 ยท PaigePhault โ CC0
Entry is **about โฌ8**, and visits are **guided only**, in groups leaving at set times โ you may wait a little at peak. โ **About 160 steps** up and down inside on an uneven route โ **not suitable for a wheelchair or pushchair**, and hard on knees. โ **The floor is permanently wet and slippery** โ closed shoes with a gripping sole. โ **The temperature is a constant 17ยฐC with high humidity** โ **a light jacket is essential in summer** (the difference from outside can be 20 degrees). โ **Flash photography is forbidden** and enforced. โ **Commentary is usually in Greek**, and in English depending on the guide โ ask before joining a group if language matters to you. โ **Open all year** and **the ideal choice on a wet day** โ and Ioannina is among the rainiest cities in Greece. โ **4 km from the city** โ the nearest major sight to it. Allow **an hour**.
**One of the largest decorated caves in Greece, only four kilometres from central Ioannina** โ among the easiest major sites in the country to reach. It was found by accident in **1940**: villagers digging an **air-raid shelter** at the start of the war broke into an enormous void beneath them. Inside are **more than a kilometre of passages** open to visitors, on several levels, filled with **stalactites, stalagmites, columns and stone curtains** in intricate forms โ **carefully lit** and arranged along a defined railed route. โ Visits are **guided and run to set departure times**, and take about **45 minutes**. โ But it is **not level**: about **160 steps** up and down inside. โ Its great advantage is that it is **open all year at a constant temperature** of around 17ยฐC โ a refuge from summer heat and winter rain alike.
Stalactites and stalagmites met to form complete stone pillars.
Thin translucent sheets hanging from the roof, lit from behind.
Passages on several floors climbing and dropping inside the hill.
Perama, 45500 Ioannina, Greece
**Because limestone caves often have **no large opening** at the surface โ which explains many late discoveries.** โ **How they form**: rainwater picks up carbon dioxide and becomes slightly acidic, seeps through cracks in **limestone** and slowly dissolves it over hundreds of thousands of years, widening the cracks into passages and chambers. **The whole process is underground** and does not need to break through to the surface. โ **So** people can walk over an enormous cave for generations without knowing. โ **What happened at Perama**: in **1940**, at the start of the war, villagers were digging an **air-raid shelter** into the hillside โ and broke through a thin layer into a vast void. โ **The striking irony**: a hole dug to escape a war revealed one of the finest things under Greece. โ **The same pattern** has repeated at other European caves โ accidental discovery is the rule rather than the exception.
**Children yes, enthusiastically; older visitors depends on the steps.** โ **Children**: among the best things to do with them in Ioannina โ the cave is **colour-lit**, the formations are strange, the guide points out rocks shaped like animals and objects, and the route is railed so there is no risk of wandering. โ **With conditions**: **not for babies in a pushchair** (it will not go through), and anyone frightened of the dark or of enclosed spaces may struggle โ the route is fairly long and you cannot leave halfway. โ **Older visitors**: the only obstacle is **160 steps** up and down on **wet, slippery** ground. Anyone who climbs their own stairs without difficulty will be fine with rests and the handrail; anyone with knee or balance problems **should skip it** โ there is no shortcut and no lift. โ **And for everyone**: **a jacket** (17ยฐC inside against 35ยฐC outside in August) and **closed shoes**.
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