Legendary History Of Borra Caves

Borra Caves is a spectacular location for tourists who love to explore historic places and caves. Borra Caves in Telugu language is also known as Borra Guhalu where ‘Guhalu’ means caves and Borra means brain. These caves lie on the East Coast of India. It could be found in the Ananthagiri hills of Araku valley. These caves are situated in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh and are among the largest caves in India with a height of about 800 to 1300 metres above the sea level. You will find unequal shaped stalactites and stalagmites formations that are millions of years old. In fact, the caves are essentially made of Karstic limestone structures.

Borra Caves was found by William King George of the Geological Survey of India in the year 1807. You will get to know the deep legendary history of these caves which was started from the tribal people after the discovery of the caves. Many people say many things about the formation of the caves. Inside the caves you will find an idol of Lord Shiva and above that another idol of a Cow called Kamadhenu could be seen. Even history is linked with the idol as well.

Gosthani River flows through the cave. This river provides water to the city of Visakhapatnam. The temperature of this place where the caves are located is about 25 °C every year. The breadth of the cave is 100 metre that is 328.1 feet at the entry and 75 metre that is 246.1 feet perpendicular.

To reach here you have to follow the steep and windy route which is a ghat road. These caves were named as Borra Caves as the formation inside the caves look like the human brain. Standing inside you can clearly hear the sound of river Gosthani that flows besides the caves. To explore these historic caves you do not have to light anything as mercury, sodium vapour and halogen lamps already spread their own colorful lights into the caves making it more spectacular. These sixty-three lamps were installed by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation.

It is said that the mining of precious stones like rubies could be possible in and around the village where mica mines are already exist. Inside the caves you can see mushroom formation, a temple, a mosque, a church and some other attractive structures.

You can see bats and golden gecko in the caves. The bats in these caves are fulvous fruit bat that could be found in large caves, old buildings, dungeons and dark areas of old forts. The forests in this region are semi-evergreen deciduous type. With this, you can also experience the hilly terrain and wonderful landscape.

The water of the river has humic acid that reacts with the calcium carbonate found in the limestone and slowly this reaction breaks the rock. This way Stalactites and Stalagmites were formed with other minerals that gave various shapes to the caves. Tourists and local people hence, gave these formations numerous names like Shiv-Parvati, Mother-Child, Rushi’s Beard, Human Brain, Crocodile, Tiger and Cows udder.

If you travel by train to this place you can see brilliant landscape full of greenery, peaks and valleys. The major park of your viewing is that your train will pass through 42 tunnels and then you will reach at the Borra Guhalu Railway station. Daily Rail Cum Road package tours are also available for you from Visakhapatnam to Araku valley. If you want to travel by Air then Visakhapatnam Airport is a close one to reach to the caves. Cars or other vehicle are the other options that pass through the ghat road. To get a good experience you should go for the guided trip that provides you attractive sightseeings like Tyada Railway Tunnel, Damuku View Point, Borra Caves, Ananthagiri Coffee Plantation, Padmapuram Gardens and the Araku Valley. So travelling to this place is not a problem as you have various services to reach to the caves.

To get access to these caves you have to pay a small amount as your entry fee. For adult the entry fee is Rupees 25 and for children the amount is Rupees 15. But remember that these caves will remain open from morning 10 AM to evening 5.30 PM. So go between these timings and explore the caves entirely. November and December are the months when you can visit to this place and enjoy the glory with cool and dry climate.

Once you start walking around you will find beautiful formation of caves in the huge mountainous area and the sight looks amazing due to the effective colorful lightings. Flora and Fauna always attracts the visitors to the caves. The Araku Valley is rich in exotic locations which is a famous hill station. So people not only visit to the valley but also other places like the caves.

One cannot miss these sites easily as they are worth visiting and adds one more wonderful place to the visitors list. This natural formation has made everyone to think thousand times and spread a message that natural beauties can not be challenged at any cost.