Die Pesch'schera Botovskaja, die längste Höhle Russlands

In March 2002 the Speleoklub "Arabika" from Irkutsk and the BUNDjugend Sachsen from Dresden took part in an expedition called "Boty-Vesnja 2002", which aimed to investigate and map the Cave Botovskaya and to collect samples for isotopic analysis at the GeoForschungsZentrum in Potsdam. The cave is approximately 650 km to the Northeast of Irkutsk, near the banks of river Lena, and is the longest cave in the Russian Federation (>57.248 m). Most of the cave system is flooded with sediments, but speleothems are found in the central parts. These sediments will allow a reconstruction of speleogenesis and palaeoclimatic conditions (such as temperature) in Southeast Siberia. The "Nemjezky Rayon" (German district), which is about 120 m in length, was discovered and mapped. Points of reference, in the form of consecutively numbered metallic labels, were placed in the cave to guide people through the criss-cross system. In certain places, old cardboard-labels were renewed or replaced with metallic ones. On the plateau above the cave a team measured the attitude of the surface and searched for other entrances to the cave.