The New Athos Cave in the Iviron Mount of the Abkhazian town New Athos may be considered one of the most interesting sights of Abkhazia, along with the Lake Ritsa and the New Athos Monastery of Simon the Cananaean.
If you come to Abkhazia with a guided tour, you are almost sure to visit the New Athos cave, whereas individual tourists traveling by a motor-car may have problems with getting the tickets. As a rule, in the morning you can buy the tickets only for evening excursions.
The New Athos cave is but one of the largest caves in Abkhazia, but it may be rightly considered the most beautiful one. For tourists there were fitted out several big halls located on various levels, which are connected by passages and stairways.
The tourists are taken to the first hall «Anacopia» by a 300-meter long tunnel. By the tunnel the tourists go down into the depth of the cave. There you can see two lakes: Blue Lake and Anatoliya Lake.
The next and the largest hall in the New Athos cave is called the Speleologist`s Hall. Its length is 260 meters and its height is 50 m. There you can see stalactites and stalagmites in all their splendor, although the next hall called Narta is even more magnificent. It is there that the third underground lake of the New Athos cave is located. It is likely that the Corallite Gallery is the most beautiful hall of the New Athos cave. The hall is also called the gallery of stone flowers.
