Cave explorers in the Guangxi region of China have found a secret ancient forest hidden inside a 630-foot-deep sinkhole.
As seen in a Twitter video posted by the China state-affiliated media organization CGTN earlier this month, the karst sinkhole — formed by rainwater that dissolves bedrock — exceeds 5 million cubic meters in area.
Inside, explorers found a primeval forest with ancient trees measuring 130 feet in height, Chinese outlet Xinhua News reported. The outlet added that it took the expedition team several hours to reach the bottom of the sinkhole, after they rappelled down almost 330 feet.
Team leader Chen Lixin told Xinhua that the plants they found at the bottom grew densely to-gether, coming up to his shoulders. The explorers referred to the sinkhole as “tiankeng” in Mandarin, or “heavenly pit,” Accu-Weather reported.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science until now,” George Veni, executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in New Mexico, told Ac-cuWeather Wednesday.—Agencies
