Event: Spain

Cuevas de Arta

When:	Daily
Where:	Cuevas de Arta
Costs:	€9
Opening Hours:	10am-6pm (until 5pm in winter)

Forty-six metres above the sea at Cap Vermell, Mallorca's Arta Caves (Cuevas de Arta) are a fascinating network of caverns on the Capdepera east coast. Visitors emerge to a beautiful view of the sea.

The guided tour includes some special effects and visits various chambers with Dantesque names like Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. However, the famous "Queen of Pillars" stalagmite attracts the most attention. This particular stalagmite is 22 metres tall and looks like a Gothic column. It is believed to have been growing upwards at the rate of 2cm every 100 years and will be joined to the ceiling in another 5000 years.

During the Christian conquest of Mallorca, Jaume I found 2000 Arabs hiding in the caves. Later hermits, pirates and smugglers also used them, but it was Edouard Martel, a famous French geologist, who was the first to thoroughly study them in 1876. It is also believed that Jules Verne was another well-known visitor; the caves are said to have inspired his Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Visitors are advised that the floor can be slippery and that the staircases are particularly difficult.