Chal Nakhjir Cave

Chal Nakhjir Cave is located on the slope and on the wall of Takht Mountain, next to the Jasb Wildlife Refuge, near the villages of Kerogan, Vashtekan, Harazjan and between the cities of Dilijan and Naraq, in Markazi Province. The name Chal Nakhjir is taken from the bottom, below and the hunting ground, because Chal Nakhjir is a part of a hollow where the hunters frightened their prey. This cave is included in the list of national monuments of Iran. Chal Nakhjir cave dates back to the third geological period and nearly 65 million years ago. Most of the structures in this cave are limestone and milky in color, and its stones are made of calcium carbonate, aragonite and gypsum. Constituted of seven floors, Chal Nakhjir cave is one of the layered caves of Iran. Chal Nakhjir cave is a flat and wet cave. The ancient signs can be seen on the mountain before the entrance of the cave. For example, the remains of a watch tower are still seen on the mountain. The entrance of the cave is located at ground level and towards the south. Currently, this gate is ten meters wide and twenty meters high. you will reach a crossroads half a kilometer after the entrance of the cave. Both ways are close to 1,300 meters. Of the seven floors of Chal Nakhjir cave just three have been explored so far. The ceiling of the cave is nearly eight meters. There is a 70-meter-deep lake inside the bed of the cave which only 400 square meters of its area have been found. It seems that the size of this lake is much more than 400 square meters. In the past, Chal Nakhjir cave had more water. Today, apart from the lake, there are pools left in the corners. In Chal Nakhjir cave, limestone deposits, dripper and stalactites, and calcareous, crystalline, needle-form, and chalk stalagmites have appeared and they have created halls, pools, and long corridors inside the cave. There are several halls named Sofre-ye Arous, Lake, Barzakh, Zoo, Farsang, Flower Waterfall, Cauliflower, chandelier, Chehel Sotoun and Hall of Beauty in Chal Nakhjir. In these halls, natural stone forms similar to eagle, turtle, deer, human, and pigeon have emerged from limestone deposits. Currently, more than a thousand meters of the length of the cave has been paved and lit for visitors.