Javier Celdrán, accompanied by technicians of the Federation of Speleology of the Region of Murcia, access to the Hall of Paradise, 100 meters deep, to know first hand this wonder of nature located in Pliego.
The acting Minister of the Environment, Javier Celdrán, together with the acting director general of Natural Environment, Consuelo Rosauro, descended the more than 100 meters of unevenness that separate the mouth of the chasm from the well-known Hall of Paradise, where they could admire the strange geological formations that house its walls, floors and ceilings, as well as the other speleothems present in the cavity.
The Ministry of Environment, through the Directorate General of Natural Environment, is finalizing the file for the declaration of the Sima of the Plum fig tree as a Natural Monument of the Region of Murcia.
Upon leaving, after more than 12 hours of intense activity, Celdrán highlighted the enormous geological and biological value of this chasm that forms one of the greatest natural wealth in our region.
Also, the regional leader admitted during his visit to feel admired by the beauty and rarity of his geological formations, showing his interest in shortly finalizing the procedure to declare the Sima de la Higuera as a Natural Monument.
The visit to the chasm was guided by technicians of the Caving Federation of the Region of Murcia, who previously trained them in descent techniques (rappelling) and rope climbing, and accompanied them through the bowels of the cavity, through the more than 70 meters of vertical wells and hundreds of meters of galleries, gateras, narrow passages and even an underground lake that must be crossed to reach this room.
Minister Celdrán thanked the Caving Federation of the Region of Murcia for the work he has been doing in the exploration, cataloging, protection, study and conservation of our underground heritage, since the subsoil of the Region is home to more than 350 caves and chasms of A great environmental value.
La Sima de la Higuera
The Sima de la Higuera, located in the municipality of Pliego, has a topographic development close to 5 kilometers of galleries and reaches 150 meters deep, which can only be accessed by having speleological knowledge in vertical progression techniques by rope, because it has an important technical difficulty.
The cavity, which has a pioneer regulated access protocol in Spain and a marked route to prevent damage to the formations, receives visits from speleological groups and scientific institutions throughout the country and even outside our borders, as it is about a gap with unique hypogenic formations and morphologies.
Hypogenic caves are those that are formed underwater, unlike the epigens that are formed by the action of flowing and dripping.
The Region of Murcia is rich in this strange type of cavities due to the great profusion of underground hot springs in our area.
These acidic waters dissolve the rock giving rise to unique formations, such as those that exist in the Sima de la Higuera that, in addition to stalactites, stalagmites and other epigenetic formations, has a wide variety of hypogenic speleothems among which Note the clouds (or clouds), cones and double cones.
Source: Federación de Espeleología de la Región de Murcia