Located on the Cisawarna river, Selaawi Village, East Sawarna Village, Bayah District, Lebak Banten. According to Asep, a local guide, the Cisawarna river is split in two, one of which goes underground, forming a stream below ground level. The other stream flows openly, then rejoins at Selaawi village. The community utilizes this river flow for irrigation of rice fields, by damming and flowing through an irrigation system, which was built independently by the community. The mouth of the cave is vertical, approximately 8 meters high and the width of the bottom, 5 meters, at the mouth of the door there is an inclined space in the form of a chamber with an outside of 60 meters and a height of 7 meters. The movement is upright, on foot, dominated by the flow of underground rivers, with a height of between 20 and 30 cm, filled with mud from sedimentation.
On the way to the location, the vehicle was parked on the side of the road, then continued on foot 2 kilometers, through the hills, rice fields and the Cisawarna river crossing. 200 meters before the mouth of the cave, layered limestone was found and tilted 45 degrees from west to east, indicating movement triggered by tectonics. In this exploration, a straight cave passage was found, and galleries and chimneys were also found. Cave ornaments include staglactite, staklamite, straw, dripstone, micro gourdam to columns that begin to unite. The exploration is approximately 500 meters deep, with the formation of an elongated passage with a local base level (groundwater limit) between 20 and 40 cm during the dry season. According to local resident Asep, the cave narrows down to a narrow passage, approximately 1000 meters deep. Until now, there is no data that can complement speleleological needs. (all photographed: Deni Sugandi)
Leave a Reply