Manjanggul Cave 만장굴, Jeju
Manjanggul Cave is one of the top ten lava tubes to visit that was formed about 200,000-300,000 years ago. It is one of 7 Geomunoreum lava tubes of Jeju Island and located in the North East area.
The visit can be done using either bus (another 30 mins or 2.7km walk to the entrance) or car. I'd suggest to rent a car while in Jeju because it will make it super easy to get around the island. If you drive, the number you want to input into the GPS is 7107903 :-). You can also access this cave as part of a one day tour through Trazy or Klook.
It was really windy and cold on the day we went to the cave. We walked for about 5 minutes from the free car park to the ticket booth but the temperature inside of the cave was very comfortable.
Lava Column Cascade
The first lava related item that we saw was the lava column cascade. It would be there on the way to entrance, to greet everyone who came to visit the Manjanggul Cave.
Let's go!
Not a clear photo, but you can see the puddles and uneven path inside the cave.
The entrance started with two flights of stone stairs that might get a bit slippery during the rainy or winter period. Even though you wear non-slip shoes with you, it's definitely worthwhile to hold on to the railing when going down and up the stairs.
The cave was definitely not wheelchair friendly since the stony surface is always wet, rocky and covered with puddles. Water will occasionally drop from the ceiling of the cave but it didn't really bother us. We saw that some people carried an umbrella with them or wore the plastic rain poncho but since you'll be walking a lot, it would be too warm if you wear the poncho. Another suggestion is just to wear a hat/ baseball cap in summer and stick to your winter jacket in the winter time.
I tried to take some photos inside but it was pretty hard because the cave was quite dark. It was a really enjoyable walk and we got to learn about how the lava stream formed the lines on the cave, stalactites and stalagmites.
Lava flow wall!
Check out the lava flow lines which was created from different level of lava contained inside the lava tubes!
There were a lot of rocks around our path and we learnt later on that big and fragmented rocks fell from the ceiling during or after the formation of the lava tubes! There were a lot of lava columns as well that was formed when lava flowed from the ceiling to the floor of the lava tube.
This big rock was once stuck to the ceiling...
23 m tall and 18 m wide passage, check out the lava column on the right!
We found the stone turtle that resembled the shape of Jeju Island. This was formed when fallen rocks got carried away by hot lava stream, covered by it and solidified into shape.
The Stone Turtle
Manjanggul Cave closes on the first Wednesday of each month. Their opening hours is from 9 AM to 6 PM with last admission at 5:10 PM.