As a geography nerd, of course I've heard of Krubera Cave (aka Voronya Cave) and also the (relatively) nearby Veryovkina Cave... the two deepest caves in the world. Not to be confused with Sơn Đoòng Cave, the largest cave in the world (that one is in Vietnam).

But anyway... Krubera Cave is insanely deep... 14.3 miles deep.

A factoid that I never really thought about until I saw this post by Simon Shows You Maps which shows an actual map of this crazy-deep cave...

Now, alas, the map is rendered virtually unreadable thanks to Facebook reducing the size so much, so I went hunting on the internet and found that I can't blame Facebook after all. Every version of this map is a mess. So I took a look at the map that Wikipedia is using and it's a doozy. Especially when you look at the twisty nature of the passages at the very bottom...

Can you imagine being the first person down there? Not knowing where the crack you're squeezing through goes or what's going on underneath you? And even if you had a map, can you fathom wanting to climb through the Millennium Pit to reach Game Over?!? These cave explorer spelunkers have to be some of the bravest people on earth. And also the most bat-shit crazy.

If you aren't claustrophobic, there are numerous videos available where you can see people descending into the cave. This is one of the more recent, and there were too many times I felt like shitting my pants as they wedged their way into tiny crevices despite the fact I am safely at home on my couch...

I'm with Simon on this one. Hard no from me. You couldn't pay me enough to even attempt it. I'd die after 15 minutes.

Probably even sooner.