Turkiye

Karain Cave

WHS Score 0.47
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  • Yevhen Ivanovych
  • Zoë Sheng

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  • Can SARICA
  • Kevin McFarland
  • Philipp Peterer
Karain Cave is a cave system where Paleolithic and Neolithic findings have been discovered. They include a fragment of a Neanderthal cranium, flint objects and animal bones. The caves have been (temporarily) lived in for 25,000 years, up and until the Greek colonization when they served a religious function.

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Karain Cave (ID: 666)
Country
Turkiye
Status
On tentative list 1994 Site history
History of Karain Cave
1989: Deferred
Bureau - until whole island can be nominated
1989: Revision
Reduced from former TWHS Santorini (Akrotiri, Old Thera, Oia and Phira) (1985)
1994: Added to Tentative List
Added to tentative list
Criteria
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org

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First published: 10/02/22.

Zoë Sheng

Karain Cave

Karain Cave (On tentative list)

Karain Cave by Zoë Sheng

Don't waste your time.

I know when somebody says that and you see it on our map here as tentative you'll be like "oh I'll go myself to confirm it isn't any good", because that's what I would do too. However, before you do, you should consider that it has already been rejected as world heritage site so if you are "staying ahead of the committee" with tentative sites then this won't be one of them, it's extremely unlikely to be a world heritage site.

So it's location is odd, north of Antalya surrounded by farms, the road doesn't look like it's going anywhere like a tourist site and the potholes aren't fun, yet it's signposted and they do have proper parking and facilities when you arrive. It's also dead cheap so that's not exactly the issue either, but when you start your visit you need to hike up 10 minutes of stairs. Consider this for your visit, especially if you were at nearby Termessos the same day and you are fit enough for both in a row.

The caves are special because evidence was found that there was continued life (or on/off might be me accurate) for 25,000 years. That surely sounds important. BUT, there is absolutely nothing here to shoe you that. It's like Peking Man without the museum. Empty caves, bats, puddles, not even cave art. There are two chambers, with the lower one nice and warm to show how life is like in …

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