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 Grotte de Remouchamps in Belgium

 

  by Eef Smitshuysen 


 Grotte de Remouchamps in Belgium

About 20 kilometers south-east of Liège, in the Amblève valley, we can find one of Belgium's oldest tourist-caves:the Remouchamps cave.
 
The Remouchamps cave was well known since 1828, and afterwards in a period of 100 years, many new parts of the cave were discovered and investigated.

Already in 1830 the first archeological excavations were started, and until now many thousands of artifacts were found and studied. In prehistoric times only the entrance tunnel was inhabited. Deeper in the cave no artifacts, drawings or other traces of habitation were found.

Around 1900 some famous Belgian and French speleologists like E. Rahir and E.A. Martel penetrated to the end of the cave.

For the first time Martel used here his famous collapsible boat.

In the last century a visit to the cave was an adventurous event. Since 1913 footpaths, tunnels and bridges were constructed and afterwards the cave was opened for mass tourism.

Until today millions of people visited the cave, with a brake during W.W. II. In 1944 the inhabitants of Remouchamps used the cave as shelter during the Ardennes offensive.

When visiting the cave nowadays, a great part of the tour is made by boat. During the boat trip the visitor passes the big column in the middle of the river Rubicon, which is pictured on the Belgian post stamp issued in 1976.

In little village of Remouchamps the majority of the people is working in the tourist industry. Therefore the post office of Sougné-Remouchamps is using a suitable postmark, which is also interesting for the speleo stamp collector.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
   

Copyright © 2006 Eef Smitshuysen