Bears' Cave

While many show caves have beautiful and unique features, few can compete with the complete cave bear skeleton embedded in the floor of Romania’s Bears’ Cave, which should probably have been named “Skeleton Cave” after they pulled the remains of 140 bears out of it.  

Called Peștera Urșilor in Romanian, the Cave is located in the Apuseni Mountains, in the borderlands of Chişcău Village. The cave system was first discovered in 1975 when exploratory mining blasting revealed the caverns. They were then explored by a group of scientists known as Speodava who found a massive amount of bones that once belonged to ancient, extinct cave bears that hadn’t walked the Earth for over 27,000 years.

By 1980, the Bears’ Cave was opened to the public, quickly becoming the most popular attraction in the area. The cave offers four galleries to explore including the Scientific Gallery and the Candles Gallery. The Bones Gallery may be the most impressive and iconic of the four however, as this cavern contains a walk way that circle the full skeleton of a cave bear that is still embedded in the stone floor.

In addition to the bear remains, the cave itself is a wonderland of impressive geologic forms. That alone would usually be enough to make for a must-see cave, but along with the skeletons this one has it all. One might say that this cave is more bear bones than bare bones.