casa dos mangues

Recomendaçoes > Caves

Grutas de Mira de Aire

Grutas da Moeda

Grutas de Santo António

Grutas de Alvados

These caves are situated in a part of the country with very characteristic geomorphological and geological features, called the Maciço Calcário Entremenho.

The landscape is dominated by Karsic morphology: it forms due to the slow dissolution of calcarious rock by rainwater, whose drainage is done mainly by infiltration, which results in the virtual absence of superficial waterlines.

What water does as a physic and chemical modeller of calcarious rock originates a variety of characteristic forms of relief which are as a whole called Karsic relief or morphology. Examples of these forms are: on a superficial level the fields of "lopiaz" and cavities called "dolinas"; and on a subterranean level the "algares", which are natural vertical openings sometimes dozens of meters high and which develop in depth in systems of galeries, chambers and wells. As a whole we call these systems caves.