Dolomite Caves of Ekiriya, Sri Lanka
Have you ever experienced “Total Darkness” in the strict meaning of the term ? If not , you have to visit the dolomite caves of Ekiriya.
“Stranger if thou hast learned a truth which needs no school of long experience, that the world is full of all its sorrows, crimes and cares to tire thee of it, enter this wild wood and haunts of nature.”
-William Cullen Bryant. (1794-1887)
Inscription for the “Entrance to a wood”
Ekiriya is one of the very few known sites of dolomite caves of Sri Lanka. This is a small village located amidst the mountains of the District of Nuwara Eliya, Southeastwards to Kandy. The area is between 450m-900m above sea level and the 1500 million year old subterranean cave system lies more or less 10m underground the village.
The entrance to the caves is not to be clearly seen because of the thick growth of bushes and vines that covered it. People in the village usually do not go into these caves because they feared of collapsing the walls while they are inside. There is a stream running out of the cave from a small opening where people had built a public bathing place which is encountered on the way uphill towards the entrance.
After peorgrating through the bushes and vines, the cave entrance comes into vision like a split of a rock, and this split makes a narrow corridor with two dry dolomite walls, looking at each other at 45cm distance. As a result, one will have to move sideways like crabs do, to enter the cave, because the small space between the walls would not permit walking head on.
After a few feet of crab-walk, the cavern gradually becomes broader and stretches straight into the darkness. Everything around is white Calcium Carbonate, tinted with hues of gray, red and yellow.
Another few feet ahead, the cavern turns to a steep descent. The way down the descent is a small tunnel-like path through which only a single person can slide down at a time. It comes down to the underground stream which flows through another dolomite cavern, originating from further deep inside the caves. The stream flows fast at this point because it is descending down towards the out-flowing mouth with its chilling, mineral rich water.
Here, the stream fills about half of the cavern and the water level rises up to an average man’s chest.
Going further upwards for about 10 meters along the waterway, the cavern ascends a little and reaches to a large room-like formation where 20 or 30 persons can gather, standing. The room is made up of Carbonate rock, a type of sedimentary rock which contains more than 50% Calcite (CaCO3) and Dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2 ). Lime stones and Dolomites make 20% of the sedimentary rocks in the world. Water drips from the roof of the cave making the interior damp and the air heavy. Bats hang on the walls at certain hooded places where they do not get wet by the dripping water.
The caves found further deep into the site are more exciting with giant stalactites and stalagmites. These are elongated formations of mineral deposited from the water which drips through the walls into the cavity of the cave. This highly carbonated water carries the minerals in solution. When it reaches to the cave cavity, it gives away its dissolved Carbon Dioxide into the air and thus reduces the capacity to hold the amount of dissolved minerals and makes them to deposit. Stalactites grow downwards from the ceilings and most of the stalactites have stalagmites growing upwards starting from points on the floor where the dripping water flows under them. Sometimes, maybe after thousands of years, stalactites meet the stalagmites growing under them and make long, thick shafts of dolomite extending from the floor to the roof. In Ekiriya, one can see these giant shafts from floor to roof as well as the small ones that are emerging from the walls. The growth rate of these cave walls are highly dependant upon the occasional variations of the dripping rate and the Carbon Dioxide content of the water.
There are four caves in Ekiriya cave site, but only three of them are accessible at the moment. The deeper most cave, of which the entrance has collapsed and blocked, gives birth to the stream flowing through the cave from a spring inside it. The large flow of water comes through the stones of the blocked entrance and it flows to the next cave (this is the last accessible cave), making a cascade into the pool in it.
The capturing of the beauty of Ekiriya dolomite caves hidden in total darkness is done using two Zenith-12xps cameras. Darkness was peorgrated using a Vivitar Auto-2600 flashgun at 5.6 aperture and 60 shutter, with Kodak ASA 100 film.
“Nature, allowing us to look on it as the most vital part of our being, our true beginning and end. With nature, every end is but a new beginning.”
-Li Migura Westphal.
By Suresh Dharmaratne.
(Photographs by Suresh Dharmaratne and Priyanke Rathnasekara).
SOURCE : www.kothmale.org
Thank you for re-publishing this article I wrote about 10 years back. It was originally published in www.kothmale.org, but it is no more there. I found another website which is owned by someone from Ekiriya village, that has published the same article.
ReplyDeleteI recently visited this place and published another article in http://lankaexotic.hubpages.com/hub/Ekiriya-Caves. I'm really happy that it looks as if I'm the only ordinary person who keeps on writing about Ekiriya.