Cango Caves hosts some of the most spectacular speleothems to be found in any cave in the world. The stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, dripstone, helictites are in such abundance in the cave, that visitors from far and wide have made the trip to Cango to experience this phenomenon. Cango is unique for many reasons but the most obvious would be its immense size (of both chambers and formations), age and natural beauty. It is highly unusual to find the above combination.

Being just over 20 million years of age, Cango has been around awhile. Initially starting to form in a tropical climate, the cave is now almost completely dry due to the change in climate. The temperature in the cave stays constant at 20ºC year-round and has high humidity – it is therefore advised that ALL visitors wear comfortable and light clothing with sensible walking shoes.

The cave is, for the most part, horizontal and this means your journey will be fairly easy (apart from a few stairs) but there is a part of the cave where this is not the case.

Man has visited Cango Caves since ancient times: Southern Africa’s earliest people found shelter here for more than 80 000 years before the Caves were re-discovered’ – in 1780 – by Dutch colonists. It has since become one of South Africa’s most frequently visited tourism attractions.

Its first full-time guide, Johnnie van Wassenaar who served for 43 years, made many of the most significant discoveries in the Caves – from 1891 until his retirement in 1934. He opened many side chambers and introduced thousands of people to Cango 1, which remains the only part of the Caves that the public may visit.

Cango Caves is an attraction of many first:

• First to be protected by environmental legislation.

• First to employ a full-time tourist guide.

• South Africa’s oldest tourist attraction.

• Biggest show cave system in Africa.