George's Bottom Cave facts for kids

George's Bottom Cave is a cool cave located in Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a special territory of the United Kingdom. This cave is part of a small group of three caves. The other two are Tina's Fissure and Levant Cave. You can find them all at the southern end of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

Discovering George's Bottom Cave

People first suspected this cave existed on November 27, 1965. The Gibraltar Cave Research Group found a small hole. It was in the Rock of Gibraltar near Spur Battery. This spot is about 310 meters (1,017 feet) above sea level.

The group felt a strong breeze coming from the hole. This made them think it was the entrance to a hidden cave. They arranged to have a big rock moved. This revealed a larger, but still small, opening. The cave was later named after George Palao from the Gibraltar Museum.

Exploring Inside the Cave

When you enter George's Bottom Cave, the space can be quite tight. You might need to crawl through some parts. Crawling can be tricky because of the interesting rock formations.

The cave is filled with many different types of limestone formations. These are natural rock shapes found in caves. You can see cave coral, which looks like tiny bumps. There are also curtains that hang like drapes. You might spot columns, straws, and helictites. Helictites are special formations that grow in unusual, twisted ways.

George's Bottom Cave is quite complex. It has six different levels. These levels contain many chambers and narrow cracks, called fissures. Each area offers a wide variety of these beautiful formations.