MojaSlovenija.si

Nova Križna jama (Križna jama 2.) is a cave which is a continuation of the famous cave Križna jama. The name of the cave comes from the church above the cave - the church of the Holly Cross. Caves are separated by the siphon which wasn’t crossed even the depth of 70 m was reached. The breath hole of the cave was familiar in 70-ies of the 20th century but not earlier than 1991 the cavers from Bloška polica and Bločice with the leadership of Alojz Troha dug out the narrow vertical passage (breath hole) to the cave. The vertical passage is with depth of 15 m and with the direction of 26 into the cave. The very first hall was named by the small cave beetle Drobnovratnik (“Thin neck beetle”) as Dvorana drobnovratnikov. From the top of the hall where the passage leads to the bottom is another 20 m of vertical descent. At the bottom is 40 m long dry tunnel – The Dry River . This tunnel is 8 m with and with the height of 6 m. Dry river ends with the not tall hall which feature are calcium pans and the abyss which bottom is the top of the incoming siphon from Križna jama. Here the water part of the cave starts with the length of about 1500 m to the final siphon.

The cave is very sensible habitat with the unique ecosystem and is with the highest level of the protection. The entry is allowed only for scientists and researchers with the special permission from the Ministry of the environment.

The cave is with very high biodiversity and until the year 2000 there were disovered 45 animal species which live in subterranean. By the number of the discovered number of animal species the cave is the World 4th by the biodiversity. Just to name some species with it Latin names:  Niphargus stygius), Niphargus orcinus, Monolistra racovitzai, Titanethes albus, cave spider(Stalita taenaria), thin neck bug by which the entry tunnel was named (Leptodirus hochenwartii), the cave worm (Pelodrilus bureschi…

In November 2004, the geographer Matej Kržič has discovered 500 m long tunnel which was named Bosonogi rov ( Barefoot tunnel).  The tunnel is with the direction north-west from the Windy waterfall and ends with the 51 m long, 40 m width and about 30 m height hall. The total of the measured tunnels of the cave is 2000 m. The altitude from the entry into the cave to the lowest point of the cave is 80 m.