See Jaskinia Ciemna (Dark Cave), Ojców National Park, Poland

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Jaskinia Ciemna (Dark Cave) is a cave located in the Ojcowski National Park on the slope of the Prądnik Valley, in the massif of the Crown Mountain. The cave is considered to be the largest chamber in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. It is one of the most important sites of the Middle Stone Age in Poland, where numerous flint tools belonging to the Mikocko- Prądnik culture were found. Stratigraphic studies of the site of traces of human presence indicate the Lower Paleolithic period (about 120,000 ago). Due to climate change, about 50,000 years ago - groups of Neanderthals stopped settling in this area. In the middle phase of the last glaciation , human groups reappeared represented byHomo sapiens. In 2018, archaeologists discovered phalanges - the hand bones of a Neanderthal child, which were dated to about 115,000 years ago. years. They also became the oldest known human remains in today's Poland. This discovery was recognized as the Most Important Archaeological Discovery in Poland 2018 in the ranking of the popular science quarterly Archeologia Żywa. In July 1787, the cave was visited by King Stanisław August Poniatowski. The cave is located at an altitude of about 65 m above the bottom of the Prądnik Valley, it consists of one huge chamber, 88 m long, 23 m (maximum) wide and slightly over 10 m high, which narrows at the end and turns into the so-called cave. tunnel. The bottom of the cave is lined with a layer of sediments, reaching up to 8 meters in places. In the second half of the 20th century, numerous bones and teeth of cave bears and single bones of a wolf, red fox, arctic fox, cave lion ( Panthera spelaea ), cave hyena ( Crocuta spelaea ) and wolverine ( Gulo gulo ) were found on the surface of sediments.). In the sediment layer, a large number of flint products and burnt animal bones were found, which were used as fuel due to the scarcity of wood during the glaciation. In the middle part of the chamber there are stalagmites , the height of which is 1 meter. The ceiling is covered with numerous tubular stalactites . The characteristic vortex boilers in the ceiling reach a diameter of 4 meters. Seven taxa of bats were observed in the cave , invertebrates: among others flies , beetles , springtails and molluscs , isopods and wasps , as well as thirteen taxa of arachnids (spiders and reapers). The air temperature is 7-8 °C.

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