Must have seen in Georgia - part 3: The Prometheus cave

The landscape around Kutaisi consists of hills with karst topology. Therefore there are many caves and currently 3 of them can be visited.

During the soviet times the army sent out geologists to explore the area to find caves which can be used to store for example ammunition or to be used as shelter for people in war times. This way a huge cave was found in the 1980's. It took many years until this cave was prepared for visitors. To end a dispute about its naming the name Prometheus was chosen by the president of Georgia himself.
Since 2012 7 of more than 20 halls were finally opened for public. 7 sounds not much but a walk through them is about 1600 m long. Moreover, after your walk you will take a boat underground to leave the cave system. This are about 400 m more. The underground boat ride depends on the water level in the cave. During my visit the water was unfortunately too low and thus we had to walk outside using a tunnel.

Before I can show images we need to go there of course. There are city buses every 15 minutes to the town Tsqaltubo. They start in Kutaisi at the red bridge (at the side opposed to the inner city) and cost 1 Lari. In Tsqaltubo wait dozens of taxis to drive you to the caves. To the Promete cave the standard price is 5 Lari. To go back you should note the phone number of your taxi driver to call him when you are ready. (In summer season there should also be a city bus line between the cave and Tsqaltubo.)

When you arrived you need to register. The entrance fee is currently 7 Lari (includes the transport back to the entrance). If there are enough people you can immediately go in with a guide. If not, you have to wait up to an hour and can then go alone if necessary.
I recommend to use an audio guide as our guide did not know much about the background or maybe she was just bored to tell the same several times every day and therefore skipped much.

And now enjoy:

The entrance to the cave.

There are other caves as well.

 

All images were taken without flash light. Therefore not every detail is super sharp but this way you get a feeing for the colors.
Since I have already been in karst caves, the fancy color lights felt a bit strange. But after a few minutes I liked it. The color of the light also changes with the time:

As for most things, not only in Georgia, there are problems with the funding to keep everything in shape. The lighting is difficult to keep up running because of the climate in the cave and there are already problems. Let's hope they can keep on this nice lighting in future.

Besides the standard tourist tour there are also photographer tours available:

Some general information.

I have never been in such a beautiful cave. The lighting is one thing but the length of and the varieties of formations is very, very impressive or as a good friend of mine likes to say "fucking awesome". Taking pictures in the cave is fun. Nevertheless, after you took some I recommend to just enjoy it only with your eyes.
The cave definitely deserves the title must have seen!

p.s. This post was written using an Arabic/English keyboard on a Russian Windows PC - Hauptsache extrem! :-)