Saholan cave is a tourist attraction and one of the most important national natural monuments in Iran. Every year, many visitors from inside and outside of Iran come to the city of Bukan to visit this amazing cave. If you are also curious about this cave, stay with us until the end of this article to know more about it.

saholan Cave is one of the best natural attractions in Iran

The route to this cave

There are different ways to travel to this cave. You can reach there from the southeast side of Mahabad city. Another way passes through Burhan road and a beautiful village called Eisa kand. If you want to reach Saholan cave from the side of Bukan city, you have to drive 25 km.

Introduction of the cave

Saholan means ice in the local language of the people of this region, and the local people call it kone kotar, which means pigeon's nest. The reason for its name is that many bird nests have been built in this cave since the past. Among the water caves in Iran, this cave ranks second and no one knows exactly when it was discovered.

In fact, since ancient times, many people visited this cave to escape the storm or to hunt. For this reason, this cave has always been known to local people. But if we want to check the history of official visits to the cave, we should go back many years, when a French person named Jacques De Morgan visited the cave for the first time.

He built a small wooden boat with the help of other people living in that area, and visited the waterway inside it with a few people. At that time, he made a simple sketch map of the inside of the cave. It is interesting to know that this map is 60% consistent with what experts have drawn today!

Families visit this cave during holidays

Learn more about the structure of the cave

Today, a route of 250 meters from the land and 300 meters from the waterway of this cave has been officially discovered and registered. The main structure of Saholan Cave consists of several beautiful ponds that are connected to each other by a waterway. The depth of the cave ponds varies between 22 and 60 meters. The height of the roof of the cave from its floor has been measured between 50 and 60 meters.

 The inside of the cave is 15 degrees Celsius cooler than the outside, and the temperature is usually between 5 and 10 degrees.The water that flows in this cave is supplied by springs and underground water sources. There are two ways to enter the cave, one of which has 178 steps and the other has 107 steps. The floor of this cave is slippery and visitors may get injured during the visit, so they should travel here with proper sports shoes.

The speleothems  of this cave have attracted the attention of many photographers. These speleothems are made of limeston. The next thing about the sediments in the cave is that many of them have been likened to things like jelly fish or elephant feet and bats. The lighting inside the cave allows you to see these sediments well.