Son Doong Cave is situated in the core area of Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, which belongs to Son Trach Commune, Bo Trach District, Quang Binh Province. Up to present, Son Doong Cave is considered as the largest cave in the world with the dimensions of 150m in width, 200m in height, and 9km in length.
Son Doong Cave was firstly explored by a local man named Ho Khanh in 1991 when he found shelter from a forest rain. At that time, Ho Khanh realized that this cave was extremely impressive in size and structure, however, he didn’t know about the incalculable value of the cave. Fifteen years later, when British Cave Research Association (BCRA) visited Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park and conducted a survey to discover new caves, Ho Khanh revealed to Howard Limbert and Deb – two members of BCRA – an outstanding cave that he discovered before. According to the description of Ho Khanh, Howard and Deb were pretty excited and urged Ho Khanh to find this cave again. After several years trying to find the position of Son Doong Cave, Ho Khanh sometimes believed that he could not find the cave again. However, in 2008, in a hunting trip, he luckily rediscovered the cave. In April 2009, BCRA following the lead of Howard Limbert made an in-depth survey, then publicized the statistics of Son Doong Cave.

Son-Doong-cave

At the first time, Son Doong Cave was named after Ho Khanh, nonetheless, few days later, it was renamed Son Doong, in which, “Son” means mountain, “Doong” refers to the name of the village where the cave is located. According to scientists, Son Doong was formed about 2-5 million years ago. As the river waters flowed through, the limestone was gradually eroded, as a result, a giant tunnel under the mountain was created. It is believed that with the length of around 9km, the width of 150m, and the average height of over 200m, Son Doong is large enough to contain a neighborhood in New York with 40-storey buildings. With this dimensions, Son Doong surpasses Deer Cave (Malaysia) to become the world largest cave.
Currently, Son Doong Cave has been put into exploration in the form of adventure tourism since 2013. However, the cave’s management board allows limited number of visitors each year. This is a reason why the number of people successfully conquered Son Doong Cave is much less than the number of people standing on Mount Everest.

Overview about Dong Hoi

Other attractions in Phong Nha: Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, Paradise cave, Phong Nha Cave, Dark CaveSwallow cave.