Karst, Caves and People 2023

Dear friends of caves and karst,

let us cordially invite you to the upcoming 5th International Meeting of Speleologists in the Moravian Karst and, simultaneously, for the 2nd year of the scientific conference Karst, Caves and People.

We resolved to organize these events, because we enjoy spending pleasant time with people brought together by their common interest. The last time a similar international meeting was hosted by the Czech Republic was in 2013, when the 16th International Congress of Speleology was held in Brno. Now, after so many years, the team of its organizers was brought together again. And we hope that the present meeting will be no less successful.

The year 2023 was chosen quite deliberately for this Meeting: it is to commemorate an exceptional event which occurred 300 years ago. The first human, a provincial of the minorite monastery in Brno Lazarus Schopper, let his fellows to rope him down to the Macocha Abyss (−138 m), then the deepest known chasm in the world. This day can be considered the onset of the interest in exploration of Moravian Karst caves.

During the Meeting, a part of Saturday will be devoted to a historical reconstruction of this descent: a monk in a wicker basket will be lowered to the bottom of the Macocha Abyss.

As a part of the Meeting, you can visit the most interesting caves of the Moravian Karst and observe other peculiarities not only in the nature, but also in the city of Brno. The second largest city of the Czech Republic lies only 40 km from the venue of the Meeting. For details see: www.gotobrno.cz

The Meeting also includes the scientific conference Karst, Caves and People, which will be held in the cine-hall of the Culture Centre at Sloup on Friday, 22 September, and on Saturday, 23 September. 
All details to this Conference are given in on this website.

These two simultaneous events are convened by the Czech Speleological Society in collaboration with the following organizations:

• Cave Administration of the Czech Republic: www.caves.cz
• Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic: www.nature.cz
• Czech Geological Survey: http://www.geology.cz/extranet-eng

and under the auspices of the International Union of Speleology UIS:
www.uis-speleo.org/index.php/what-is-the-uis