sign in a cave in Laos

6 November 2011

Gunung Sewu cockpit karst in Java

The Gunung Sewu karst in Java, Indonesia, is famous for the hundreds of small limestone hills.

Gunung Sewu or Thousand Hills, is well known amongst cavers and karst scientists. There are hundreds of cockpit karst hills, covering an area of about 1300 km2, which stretches 85 km from west to east and between 10 and 29 km north to south.

From the city of Yogyakarta the road climbs up on to the escarpment to the town of Wonosari. Geologically there are 2 basins either side of Gunung Kidul. The western one drains south, but the eastern one now drains north to Surabaya, so the land has tipped.
Gunung Sewu cockpit karst


The karst hills can be seen on Google Earth

In 2010 Indonesia opened a karst museum, which is the only one of its kind in Southeast Asia. It is centred around the Gunung Sewu karst.

More than 600 caves are recorded. Some of the show caves are Gua Tabuhan and Gua Song Terus.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

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