The Moravian Karst, Macocha Abyss and the Punkva Caves – Where Surface Meets Depth

The Moravian Karst

Few kilometres north of Brno lies the Moravian Karst – a landscape that may be small in size, but vast in complexity. Over millennia, water has dissolved its limestone bedrock into a world of hidden depth: deep gorges, sunlit cliffs, dry rocky plateaus, and a labyrinth of underground caves and rivers.

Macocha Abyss and Punkva caves

At the heart of it all is the dramatic Macocha Abyss, a sinkhole plunging more than 138 metres into the underground – the deepest of its kind in Central Europe. Beneath it, the underground River Punkva flows quietly through the Punkva Caves, where visitors can join an official guided boat tour through cathedral-like chambers beneath the surface. This iconic experience is just one part of what the Karst has to offer.

Stories above underground

Above ground, the terrain tells its own story – full of contrasts and hidden connections. Cold deep canyons and moist scree forests give way to dry, treeless plateaus. These tight juxtapositions create space for rare plant and animal species.
The caves themselves hold more than geological wonders. They preserve traces of the distant past – from Ice Age beasts to early human inhabitants – and still offer new discoveries to scientists and cavers today.

More Than Just Caves

In a region where surface and underground worlds are inseparably connected, the Moravian Karst invites a slower, more attentive kind of exploration. While the Punkva Caves are rightly famous, the landscape that surrounds them is what brings the whole story into focus – rich in life, shaped by time, and full of things still waiting to be seen.