Visit to Manjanggul Cave in Jeju

Below are some photographs taken at  Manjanggul Cave (मान्जांग-गुल गुफा) which we visited 2 days ago on Sunday.

We woke-up early in morning in Seogwipo, and started our journey for Manjanggul Cave at around 8:40 am after buying eating items.

We drove along the beach; the distance to Manjanggul cave is around 60km from our start place, Seogwipo town. We took lots of photos of country-side of Jeju.


8:40 am traffic in Seogwipo, May 4.

roads are good everywhere here; you will appreciate it after driving in our country :)



Flowers next to roads



traffic lights



farm trees in Jeju

Geologists say  that  volcanic eruptions created the Jeju island 2 millions years ago, the time when ancestors of us humans lived in Africa in Jungles and looked like other monkeys without tails.



these beach stones are made of lava of volcanic eruptions



these structures are to attract tourists



a house in jeju country-side.



the road leading to house



stones are everywhere in jeju

our car and its driver 

a street dog :)

On the way, we stopped at Songsan Ilch'ubong which is a major tourist attraction. We reached there at 10:20 am, and spent around 2.5 hours there.

After lunch and coffee at Lotteria fast food in Seongsan Ilchulbong, we left for Manjanggul cave at 1pm and reached there in half an hour at 1:30 pm.





Parking lot at Manjanggul cave

Gul (in Manjanggul) means cave.

May be, this word Gul (गुल) for cave is related to Guha (गुहा) word of Paali language which people here may have some familiarity as it is the major Buddhist literature language and temples here have Paali language texts.

But  this relation is just my pure raw guess, only linguists know better  :)

Building behind tree has entry-ticket office, and restaurant.

Just next to it are these signature statues of Jeju island.
Man statue is called "stone grandfather" in  Jeju Korean dialect, and were supposed to protect from demons/spirits coming to our world.



Entrance of the cave

There are two other cave entrances, but only this entrance is open to the public.

This cave was made approx 300,000 (तीन लाख) years ago - the time when the single mother from whom all human beings came was not yet born.


This cave is actually lava tube, which is made when an active low-viscosity lava flow from some eruption develops a continuous and hard crust, which thickens and forms a roof above the still-flowing lava stream.





Inside cave



artificial creation behind me



colorful light on the roof  is artificial, from installed LED lamps below:)

Temperature inside cave is around 15*C despite outside being more than  25*C.

Lava coating is everywhere, from roof, walls to the floor.
In other words, I was walking inside a many km long tube made of solidified lava.

Some people imagine this rock to be of turtle shape. It is also coated by lava.



the solidified lava on roof of the cave



Looking at rocks behind me creates the fear : did they fall from roof of the cave recently and can this cave collapse now from load of mountain above it?.
But  these lava coated rocks are lying like this from time unknown (from information attached to the site).


And the lava coating is so hard, thick and strong that you cannot break a single small speck from lava-coating. (I tried doing this :) ).



At the final allowed point (1 km from entrance) in the cave. Going after this point is prohibited by Gov't.