Kentucky
Inscribed 1981
Mammoth Cave National Park preserves the world's longest known cave system, with more than 400 miles explored. The park illustrates a number of stages of the Earth's evolutionary history and contains ongoing geological processes and unique wildlife. Nearly every type of cave formation is known within the site, the product of karst topography, while the flora and fauna of Mammoth Cave is the richest cave-dwelling wildlife known.
Early guide Stephen Bishop called the cave a "grand, gloomy and peculiar place," but its vast chambers and complex labyrinths have earned its name - Mammoth.
The park and its underground network of more than 560 surveyed km of passageways are home to a varied flora and fauna, including a number of endangered species.
Characteristic examples of limestone formations from within the cave system.
Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of sandstone, making the system remarkably stable.
River Styx Spring Trail is one of the park’s dozens of hiking and biking trails, ranging from easy to rugged.
Mammoth Cave National Park encompasses 82.63 square miles of Kentucky back country.
