Limanu Cave

Limanu cave is located in the southern part of Romania, the village Limanu. Limanu cave is not far from the village.

Prominent historian Vasile Parvan Keiris identified the cave as being located in the Gura Dobrogea area, but new studies indicate rather Limanu cave as the underground maze that Dacians used it to hide from the Roman proconsul Marcus Licinius Crassus.

Testimony about this very important historic event we get from Cassius Dio's history, which relates to 'Romanian history' Keiris an entire episode about the cave, that relates it was so huge that even the Titans had taken refuge there after the defeat against the gods.

In the years 29-28 BC, the Roman proconsul warrior undertook an expedition to come to the aid of Roles, which were in conflict with King Dapyx. The fortress was conquered, its inhabitants fled, taking their belongings with them, to Keiris cave, a vast maze that has multiple entrances.

Crassus, however, found them all and he built. The prospect of starvation led locals to surrender. After the conquest, the two men continued to attack other kingdoms, regardless of the policy which they had against the Roman Empire.

Ancient History has not made any mention of the place where the cave could be located. Latest research studies try to find current location Keiris cave, cave Limanu, Caracicala or icons,  by its other names.

Name 'icons' holds no Christian names, they seem to have been inspired by carved faces at the cave entrance, perhaps a sign of recognition, now partially destroyed.

Situated in the village Limanu, Constanta County, the cave was first studied by caver CM Ionescu, 1916. Later, a team led by Margareta Dumitrescu and Traian Orghidan investigated the cave, dividing it into three sectors.

Dr. Basil Boroneanţ found by careful research of the cave, elements that marked the unique nature of the caves in our country. Long and winding corridors made after a well thought out plan, which served to [opaitele] niches for lighting, signs marking the corridors, probably orientation points, two shrine rooms whose ceiling is covered in soot, which indicates that they served their purpose, embedded bone in the cave wall or ceramic objects from different periods, from the Geto-Dacian, Romanian, to the Greek, all traces of past civilizations, ancient history come to support Dio Cassus's story.

Some galleries have walls and ceilings covered with drawings, symbols of Roman and Cyrillic characters. Historian Vasile Boroneanţ identifed these drawings as belonging to several generations, starting from the first century BC up to the XI century AD, or parts of art evoking scenes from the Iron Age, Thracian, Dacian or the Roman-Byzantine period.

The cave has long been open to casual or curious visitors, who succeeded in vandalizing its walls, scrawling on and covering a lot of designs and inscriptions preserved there for more than 2,000 years.

Historians who have studied the cave said that there are still many section waiting to be explored, but the conditions are unsuitable for adequate research.

Most historians are concerned with the extent of the caves. It seems that some corridors go beyond the border of Romania, to the south. There is an episode with a villager who ventured into the cave to research and came up in the basement of a Bulgarian peasant, he drank wine and then returned home. There is another story of a local who wished to dig a well in the yard and stopped when startled bats flew out of the earth, a sign that he had disturbed a nest underground. The fountain still exists today and is closed, not workable.

It seems that other corridors lead to the cave in the village church, a fact attested by several children lost in an underground accident, who heard church bells at the time, thus realizing where they were.

SOURCE: Cave Limanu