Since 2012, Sung Sot Cave has been voted as one of the 10 most beautiful caves in the world. It is a cave located on Bo Hon Island in Ha Long Bay, a world-famous natural heritage. The name "Sung Sot" was given to this cave by a French scientist when he came to explore it in 1901, it evokes many surprises for people when they come to explore. That's right, if standing on a boat looking up, it's hard to imagine that hidden inside the island with towering rocks is a magnificent, beautiful and impressive cave.

Bo Hon Island, home to the unique Sung Sot Cave.

When the boat docks, visitors will climb 50 stone steps winding along the mountainside to reach the cave entrance. The path is not too dangerous and has many vines and lush vegetation, making the space here cool, friendly and wild. The cave entrance is quite wide and airy. If you stand at the cave entrance, you can see far away a charming landscape of mountains and rivers with rippling blue sea water blending into the large and small undulating islands, evoking many imaginations about mountains and rivers.

Entering the cave is a small stone path winding down the slope. And this is also the space that evokes in the hearts of visitors many surprises, interesting and rich associations. The arrangement in the cave is natural, charming by nature. Perhaps for thousands of years, the changes of the earth, sky, mountains and rivers have created the postures and shapes of the rocks, the ponds, and the cave roofs.

Sung Sot Cave was voted one of the 10 most beautiful caves in the world in 2012.

The deeper you go inside, the more you will feel the cave walls are created by the wonderful and beautiful spaces. Those are the towering stalactites columns created by the charming drops of water from thousands of years ago. Those are the clusters of stalactites that continue endlessly on the cliffs, creating splendid borders like a fairyland.

Entering each section, stalactites and boulders have shapes that evoke many interesting associations in people's hearts. Those are stone turtles lying by the lake for a long time, those are the elephants of Lady Trieu charging into battle, those are Buddha statues evoking a Zen atmosphere. In the cave space, there are small ponds created by countless charming drops of water flowing from the cave roof, flowing from the water source in the cave.

The majestic, natural stone pillars of Sung Sot Cave.
Mountain and water space seen from Sung Sot cave entrance.

In particular, Sung Sot Cave is also associated with the legend of Saint Giong fighting the An invaders. After returning home after defeating the invaders, Saint Giong bowed to his motherland and flew back to heaven, leaving behind the horse's hooves to form ponds. Legend has it that Sung Sot Cave is where Saint Giong's horse's hooves were left in ancient times.

Therefore, in the cave, there are horse-shaped stone pillars and small ponds that are believed to be the footprints of Saint Giong’s horse. The roof of the cave is made up of countless silvery, smooth, fish-scale-shaped concave stones that evoke many wonders. Occasionally, clusters of stalactites hang down naturally into the air.

The exit to the back door of the cave is a small stone path and passes through many stone pillars with clusters of stalactites of various shapes and sizes. When reaching the cave entrance, a charming landscape opens up before one's eyes.

Stalactites blend into the light to create a magical, mysterious look.

Ms. Duong Hai Yen (Am Ha, Ha Hoa, Phu Tho) shared: “Sung Sot Cave has a fascinating and attractive natural beauty. When I came here, I gained more understanding about the beauty of the Ha Long Bay heritage complex.”

Exploring the beauty of Sung Sot Cave, visitors will go from one surprise to another and have interesting experiences about the uniqueness of nature, the beauty of Vietnam's mountains and rivers in the middle of the ocean.

Article and photos: NGUYEN THE LUONG

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