In 2014, the members of a hiking and caving club were in Racha on a two-day expedition to study caves when they encountered a 76-year-old shepherd by the name of Murad Tsnobiladze. In speaking with the shepherd, they learned of a heretofore unknown cave in the region that stood out from the other caves in the region.
In honour of his assistance in bringing the remarkable cave to the public’s eyes, Muradi Cave was named for this shepherd.
Muradi Cave is made up of two large “halls”, both of which can be accessed from the cave’s four-metre-wide, one-metre-tall entrance. Inside these halls are beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and speleothems, including sparkling, ball-szied stalagmites that can be found nowhere else on earth.
The unique nature of the cave’s ecosystem and its speleothems have been confirmed by Arthur Palmer, a professor at New York University.
In addition to its halls, the cave has a number of small branches and different stories, including the narrow, tube-like passages in the main hall.
The maximum height of the ceiling is 10 to 15 metres, and its total length is about 150 metres. The cave ends with a 3 to 15-metre-deep well, and is estimated to be between 80,000 and 100,000 years old.