Visit to belum caves

After wandering for nearly five years , I thought i would post all i have seen in these years within india. Hope all travellers down there would like the experiences and so here is my post.

I thought why not post first about places which most people haven’t heard of. Then the first place came to my mind is the belum caves in the Andhra Pradesh, barely a 9 hour train journey from Chennai. I have visited the caves twice and it will take ages for the places nearby to get into the fast track world. So u can see wilderness without a forest too!

This is the entrance to the 3 Km long cave beneath the ground.

 You have to take an auto from tadipatri or a local bus from banganapalle. The first time i visited, took an auto and paid 300 rupees to get dropped right near the Buddha statue.The only landmark that will be available for long time will be the tall Buddha statue, you can see from far away. The remnants of the caves found by archaeology department date the vessels to 4500 BC?. Buddhist monks used it as a meditation hall?

 

Landmark for reaching belum caves

Once you reach belum caves get an entrance ticket costing 40 Rs. Timings  10:30 AM - 5:30 PM and just go along with the guide available free of cost by APTDC.

Narrowing down inside the cave

Further below inside the chambers

 

A blocked passage

At around 1 KM inside

Now you start sweating and get the feel of cave

 

After some small climb

 

 

 

Air pumped  artificially thru the hole on the top for breathing

You can see some stalgite formations caused by water flow.

 

Now you have to go into this one.

See the formations on the roof and sides

 

Still one more KM to go

 

Note the direction. You are going below inside the earth.

 

No rock climbing. Steps are available to reach there.

 

The return way to outside. Don’t miss it.

 

Natural formations

 

Exit passage

 

 

 

 

 

 

So does our visit to belum caves ended thanking Buddha for showing us to have a wonderful exhilarating experience.

Historical facts

The caves are natural and millions of years old, known to the local villages for ages. First recorded by Robert Bruce Foote in 1884. Explored and chartered by H.D.Gebauer, German caver and his team in 1982-84. Declared as natural heritage by Andhra Pradesh Archaeology department in 1989. Taken over by Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development corporation in 2000 AD. Developed and thrown open to public in 2003 AD.

Mystery of the caves

These millions of years old caves reveal the fantastic works of art hidden in their bowels. Spaceous chambers, long passages, fresh water galleries, siphon, formations of stalagmites rising from the floor and stalactites hanging from the roof, pit holes , lines and fractures in the structure are sights to see, admire and wonder how nature has played with water to create such a good art work.

What to see inside the caves?

1.   Pit holes in ceiling

2.   Stalcites and stalagmites on the chamber

3.   Dhyan mandir

4.   The sand hoods

5.   Mantapam

6.   Banyan tree hall

7.   Kotilingalu

8.   Pathala ganga

9.   Maya mandir

How to reach

By road:

Nearest town : Banganapalle(25 kms)

Nearest City : Kurnool

By rail:

Nearest railway station Tadipatri(30 kms) – best option if you are from Chennai, Bangalore.

By air:

Nearest airport: Bangalore and Hyderabad are equidistant at 320 KMs.

Accomodation

APTDC(Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development  Corporation) also runs a restaurant and a small shop at the entrance to Belum Caves. Accomodation is available at Banganapalle and Tadipatri. There is no other place nearby for taking food etc. So carry enough water bottles as it is very humid inside the caves.

See you in another post. Until then good bye.