Cave Orda is located on the eastern outskirts of the village Horde of Perm region, on the left bank of the river Kungur. It consists of a "dry" and an underwater part. The length of a dry part is 300 meters, underwater - 4200 meters. Today Orda Cave is the longest underwater cave in Russia. Besides, some space of the cave is the longest siphon in the CIS - 935 meters. Coordinates input 57.182 ° N,
56,887 ° E
What is the uniqueness Ordinskaya cave? It’s the longest underwater cave in Russia, the second longest underwater cave in Eurasia and the longest in the world cave in gypsum. Cave Orda is located about 100 km southeast of the city of Perm, near the southwestern outskirts of the village Horde. Its research began more than 15 years ago, in 1992, thanks to the efforts of enthusiastic cavers. The status of longest underwater cave of Russia was acquired nearly 10 years ago, in 1997, by virtue of the efforts of the first all-Russian cave expedition. Since that time the length of the explored underwater part of the cave has increased more than three times, from 1250 m to 4000 m. What is the difference between Orda and other underwater caves? It’s gypsum, the cave is characterized by a low water temperature (four degrees Celsius), huge amounts of underground galleries, water transparency and low turbidness. Investigations of the cave began in the early 1990's. In 1992, a Permian caver Samovolnikov Andrew learnt about the existence of the cave and became the initiator of its detailed study. In 1993-1994, the first 300 m of corridors and grottoes of a dry part of the cave were mapped. The studies were conducted under the guidance of Permian cavers Andrew Samovolnikov and Igor Lavrov, with the participation of Permian, Kungur and Moscow colleagues. The researchers were struck by the volumes of the cave: the size of the caves were comparable to the size of large rooms of Kungurskaya Ice Cave. Deep clean lakes, high plaster arches, a fancy snow-ice decoration of rooms in winter - all these things only emphasized the similarity of the two caves. In March 1994, at the invitation of Igor Lavrov a caver-diver from Ryazan Viktor Komarov arrived in Perm, in order to dive into the final siphon of cave Parallel (near v. Gubahi) An underwater course was too narrow, the discovering didn’t take place, the air remained in the cylinders, so it was decided to check lakes in cave Orda. A lake in the cave of the Ice Palace surprised the researchers, it was frozen. Three young cave explorers who came together with Komarov, went to look for screws,. Near the cave, on the pond, the fishermen were engaged in ice-fishing. Seeing that the guys came out of the cave, and learnt that they were going to "catch fish in the cave”, the fishermen were very interested and even offered a choice of ice screws. The ice in the lake was about half a meter thick, it took a long time to make a lane. Victor Komarov says: "The size of lanes allowed to pass only with one 7-liter bottle on the side. For explorative dive that was quite enough. Igor Lavrov provided the immersing from the surface. He gave a steel wire (runner) from the coil. In passing down an underwater course a few stones and boulders were stuck. They were carried loosely, and we managed to throw them down. After clearing the passage I went to the ceiling of a large gallery. It lies to the right and left of me. At first, I decided to explore the right outlier. Passing on it about 30 meters, I realized that it is clearly not enough to have one cylinder here. A powerful halogen lamp helped to estimate the situation. Coming out of the trap, I decided to make another dive in the left outlier, but with a double balloon device. The lane was expanded, and Komarov made another dive in the left gallery. However, the runner jammed into cracks and the diver had to return quickly. In this direction 70 meters were passed, in total 100 m were explored. The first step in the study siphons of Orda cave was made. In July 1996, a cave-diver from Krasnoyarsk Peter Minenkov investigated the next 250 m of underwater passages. After the first trap 75 m long they discovered a large dry cave, which was later called Dry Hall, its diameter is 50 and height is 10 m. What we can offer:
We can arrange transfers from Moscow and St. Petersburg to the cave and back. We place at a camp, a hotel or apartments in close proximity to the cave. We carry out delivery or rental of necessary equipment for cave diving. For certified divers we arrange dives with English speaking guide. You can pass cave courses TDI Cavern, Intro to Cave, Full Cave or CMAS Cave I, Cave II, Cave III.
