St. Michael's Caves

Useful Information

photography — The “Cathedral” of St Michael´s Cave (1930s), photographer **E. R. Kenyon**. Historic Photograph. St. Michael´s Caves, Gibraltar, Great Britain. Public Domain.

Location:	St Michael's Rd, Gibraltar GX11 1AA. Gibraltar, Nature Reserve Upper Rock. (36.1260852, -5.3455407)
Open:	Upper Rock Nature Reserve: NOV to APR daily 9-18, last entry 17:45. MAY to OCT daily 9:30-19, last entry 6:45. Closed 25-DEC, 01-JAN. Cable Car: all year daily 9:30-17:15 (up), 9:30-17:45 (down). [2024]
Fee:	Upper Rock Nature Reserve including all attractions: Adults GBP 19, Children (5-11) GBP 13, Children (0-5) free. Cable Car: One Way: Adults GBP 35.50. Return: Adults GBP 38, Children (5-11) GBP 22. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave Cave Church, St. Michael Caves
Light:	Incandescent Coloured Light Son et Lumière
Dimension:	VR=62.5 m, A=300 m asl.
Guided tours:	self guided. V=1,000,000/a [2010]
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:
Bibliography:	Chris Danilewicz (1983): The St Michael's Cave System, Gibraltar, OUCC Proceedings 11 (1983). online Edward P. F. Rose, M. S. Rosenbaum: A Field Guide to the Geology of Gibraltar Caves. Edward P. F. Rose, M. S. Rosenbaum (1990): Royal Engineer Geologists and the Geology of Gibraltar The Gibraltar Museum, 1990
Address:	St Michael’s Cave, St Michael's Rd, Gibraltar GX11 1AA, E-mail: Department of the Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change and Heritage, 2B Leanse Place, 50 Town Range, Gibraltar, Tel: +350-20065964. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

45 AD.	first mentioned by the Augustan geographer Pomponius Mela.
1840	Colonel Mitchell and his friend Brett explore the cave and never return.
1840	Captain Webber-Smith surveys the cave for the first time and draws up an overall plan.
1942	a tunnel was being driven into the largest chamber.
1942	discovery of New St. Michael's Cave.
1960	cave opened as a show cave.
2018	listed in the Heritage and Antiquities Act.

Description

St. Michael's Cave is a famous show cave with a million visitors per year. The rock of Gibraltar is honeycombed by natural caves as well as tunnels. To date, more than 200 natural caves have been explored above today's sea level, and more are known below sea level. The plural of St Michael's Caves is justified, as there are two caves. The show cave is Old St. Michael's Cave, while New St. Michael's Cave was discovered in 1942 by the construction of a tunnel. While both caves are very close, only a few meters apart, they are actually not connected, only by an artificial tunnel

To keep them apart, St. Michael's Cave is generally called Old St. Michael's Cave (OSM). It has been known since Roman times, and the natural entrance allowed rather easy access down a slope. It was first mentioned by Pomponius Mela in the first century as, “A mountain with wonderful concavities, which has its western side almost opened by a large cave which may be penetrated far into the interior". The cave consists of an Upper Hall with two parts of different character. The northern part is a huge chamber which is called Main Cave and Auditorium or First Hall. This part of the Upper Hall is large enough to serve as a concert hall, it was used for centuries as a concert hall and for other events. For this purpose, rows of neat concrete steps were created, suitable for stairs seating up to 400, and it has a Stage at the southern end. It is used for concerts, ballets, drama and presentations, until today and there are also yearly Son et Lumière shows.

The southern third of the Upper Hall has numerous huge stalagmite and pilar formations, which separate it into five passages. This part is named Cathedral Cave. A steep 45° descent leads to the 20 m deeper level of the Lower Cave. From here a passage follows with a series of narrow halls leading downwards to a depth of 60 m.

There are several legends connected with Old St. Michael's Cave. The first is about the Bottomless Pit, a rather unimpressive 8 m deep shaft. It was long believed to be actually bottomless, which is ridiculous. Then there is the story that Gibraltar was linked to Africa by a more than 24 km long subterranean passage under the Straits of Gibraltar. Such a cave would be extremely unlikely from the geological view, and then the cave would be flooded by seawater. This is obviously a Smile Far Connection Legend. And there is a last one: the apes disappear down this tunnel when they die. No comment.

The cave was known for a long time, obviously, as there are human remains since prehistory. The name Saint Michael, the attribution to the Archangel, is obviously of Christian origin. It was first mentioned by the mid-16th century Spanish soldier and author Pedro Barrantes Maldonado:

En algunas partes de estas sierras de Gibraltar hay unas grandes cuevas cavadas en las peñas, donde dicen que solían habitar los antiguos gigantes, y sobre todas es más señalada la cueva que llaman de Sant Miguel.
In some parts of these mountains of Gibraltar, there are large caves dug in the rocks, where they say that the ancient giants used to live, and above all, the cave they call Saint Michael is the most notable.
Pedro Barrantes Maldonado

The same name, Cueva de San Miguel, is mentioned by the historian Alonso del Portillo. It was translated into English when the British took over in 1704 with the occupation of the peninsula. There were attempts to rename it St George’s Cave or Cave of Gibraltar, but the name St. Michael's Cave stuck. The name St George’s Cave was used by some authors during the 19th century, but did not catch on generally. An early visitor who actually left a description of the cave was the mid-nineteenth-century travel-writer and artist William Henry Bartlett (*1809-✝1854).

Leaving the Signal tower we pursued a pathway running not far beneath the top of the Rock, which in about five minutes' walk conducts to O'Hara's Tower, being the southernmost of the three peaks of the Rock. About midway is a yawning cavern, opening into the bowels of the mountain-the far-famed St. Michael's Cave, well known to the ancients. Having taken the precaution of bringing a guide with blue lights from the Signal station, we descended the slippery pathway between lofty pillars of stalactite, depending from the roof above into the gloomy penetralia of the interior; and, carefully avoiding a profound pit upon our left, found ourselves in a darkness visible, and in a silence so deep and still, that the droppings of the water which percolates through the roof above were distinctly heard plashing at intervals upon the rocks beneath. Our guide lighted a pile of brush, which, as it blazed up, dimly disclosed to us a lofty vault-shaped dome, supported as it were on pillars of milk-white stalactite, assuming the appearance of the trunks of palm-trees, and a variety of fantastic foliage, some stretching down to the very flooring of the cavern, others resting midway on rocky ledges and huge masses of congelation, springing from the floor, like the vestibule of some palace of the genii. At a given signal the blue lights were now kindled, when the whole scene, which had been but imperfectly illuminated, flashed into sudden splendour,-hundreds of pendulous stalactites before invisible started into view,-the lofty columns, with their delicate and beautiful formation, glittered like silver, and seemed enchased by the wand of enchantment. But this glimpse of the splendours of the cavern was, alas, but momentary; for our lights speedily burning down, we were compelled to retreat before we were involved in dangerous darkness. I have mentioned a gloomy yawning fissure-to this, while groping our way out, we contrived to give as wide a berth as possible. It is the pathway, half beautiful, half horrible, into unfathomable depths below. "While our eyes were endeavouring to penetrate a little further into its mysteries," says a traveller, from whom we quote the incident, "I suddenly flung my torch into it. The effect was beautiful: the torch blazed brightly as it fell, making for itself a sort of halo of glittering gems, as it lighted the walls of the gulf-momentary but beautiful. We tried this with all the torches it was safe to spare, for we were far from daylight, and then tossed fragments of rock and crystals, which echoed far in the depths, and fell we knew not where. It is supposed that the whole rock is galleried in this way. Explorations have been attempted, and two soldiers once undertook to descend this very gulf. One only returned, however; his comrade had disappeared for ever." This chasm bears, moreover, somewhat of a sinister character, and it has been supposed that more than one unfortunate has met with foul play, being enticed within the cave by some assassin, and after being plundered, pushed into this horrible gulf, as a place that would tell no tales. Shortly before our visit, a gentleman who was desirous of exploring the place, caused himself to be lowered with ropes, bearing a light in his hand; but what was his horror, so soon as his foot came in contact with resistance, to find that he was treading upon some substance that yielded to the pressure, while at the same time the pale gleam of his torch fell upon the ghastly features of a murdered man! Another gentleman of our acquaintance has lately explored its windings for a distance of four hundred feet. The actual extent of this subterranean passage never having been ascertained, is a fertile subject of mystery and exaggeration-the vulgar believing that it is the mouth of a communication beneath the straits with Mons Abyla, and that by this pathway the apes upon the Rock found their way over from Africa. The Moors are said to have been well acquainted with its recesses, and it has even been fancied that some enemy might work his way into the fortress through these subterraneous passages. The vestibule of the cave was appropriately enough selected as the scene of various duels.
William Henry Bartlett (1851): Gleanings, Pictorial and Antiquarian, On the Overland Route 2nd ed. London: Hall, Virtue, 1851. Google Books

In the mid-19th century, the cave was already regularly visited, and it was illuminated even then by coloured light. John Murray Carter explains his 1846 picture, that visitors were led into the cave with a few small candles for the path, and when they reached the main chamber, the cave was illuminated by bright, coloured lights. It seems the kitschy illumination of this cave has a long tradition. Its unclear how they did it, but we guess they burned magnesia with different additions for different colours. The Garrison officers at that time regularly visited the cave, but they did not only tourist visits, they also did cave research. Colonel Mitchell and his friend Brett explored the cave in 1840 and never return. The obvious explanation is that they died inside the cave, but no remains were ever found, not even with modern speleological research. In the same year, Captain Webber-Smith surveyed the cave for the first time and draws up an overall plan. Numerous places were first named on this map, its unclear if he named the places or if they had been named by other explorers.

Due to the limestone formation of the Rock, there are many caves — the largest of which is St. Michael's. It is 1,000 feet above sea level, and can be entered only through a small opening. Within is a lofty hall, 250 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 70 feet high. Stalactites produce the impression of a Gothic cathedral. Leading from this large hall are numerous small caves, in which fossil remains have been found. Great labor and a large amount of money have been expended in attempting to penetrate all of these caves, but up to the present time many of the minor ones have remained unexplored.
U.S. Navy (1920): Ports of the World. Washington: US Government, 1920. archive.org

The above description in a book by the U.S. Navy shows that the cave was more or less a show cave. At least it was accessible to military personell, which visited Gibraltar, and was more or less a semi-wild cave. It has been gated since the mid-19th-century, most likely to avoid accidents, and the main chamber was easily accessible and the floor more or less level.

During World War II, the Lower Cave was prepared as an emergency hospital, but it was never used as such. In 1942 a tunnel was built to provide reasonable air ventilation for the hospital, others say to provide an alternative entrance. This tunnel cut into a new cave which was named New St Michael's Cave or Lower St. Michael's Cave. The discovery was a military secret for a year, but in March 1943 the discovery was published in the Times, and two months later as “picture of the week” in Life Magazine.

The actual development as a show cave was in 1960, a new entrance tunnel was built which enters the Upper Hall at the southern end, the Cathedral Cave. Across the Stage the Main Cave and Auditorium, after walking up the ranks, the cave is left through the old entrance. Lately it was redesigned with coloured light and is now a modern art installation named The Awakening. They babble about an "immersive light and sound installation". The cave is more or less like an underground museum, with cases containing Neanderthal findings, educational panels and the light show. Many prehistoric relics have been found in Gibraltar caves, including the first Neanderthal-type skull. Visitors visit the cave self-guided. To avoid vandalism, much of the cave is surveilled with CCTV and alarms.

In the Cathedral Cave a stalagmite became too heavy and fell on its side long ago. In 1972, a slice 45 cm thick was cut, revealing its interior structure. The stalagmite was translucent in some areas. Its growth was clearly indicated during periods of excessive rain by light brown rings and during periods of less rain by dark brown rings. Two thin lines of a crumbly white substance were thought to represent glacial periods. These are the 1972 results though, and 50 years later, climate records have become much more important and the technology much more sophisticated. As far as we know, this early analysis is mostly nonsense, but radioisotopes to determine the actual climate have not existed at that time. The conclusion that differently coloured stripes are a consequence of different climates is as obvious as it is worthless. We can only recommend a reevaluation of this sample, if it still exists, with modern methods.

Until recently, the caves were controlled and looked after by the Royal Engineers. Now the caves are part of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Department of the Environment for Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar. The entrance tickets are day tickets valid for 17 sites on the Rock, one of them is the cave. The ticket is a paper arm band with a 2D barcode, there is a scanner at the door which opens the gate. However, while it is valid for the whole day, each site can be entered only once. We actually do not understand the logic of this rule, but that's obviously how bureaucrats think.