Lazar’s cave

At the end of the impressive Lazar's canyon, over hundreds of thousands of years, a monumental Lazar's cave, 56 meters high, was formed in the limestone hill Pripor. It is 21 kilometers away from Bor, 14 kilometers from Brestovacka Banja, and 3.5 kilometers from the village of Zlot. Lazarus Cave is a spring cave. Today's entrance to the cave at 291 m above sea level made its course sinkholes which, after flowing through deep limestone formations, erupted to the surface here. Today, in the immediate vicinity of the entrance, in the bed of the Lazareva river, water erupts on the surface in the form of a strong karst spring. The knowledge about Lazar's Cave contributed to the development of new sciences and the expansion of knowledge in many scientific branches. The first description was given by Felix Kanic, and then it was studied by: Jovan Žujović, Felix Hoffman, Jovan Cvijić, Siniša Stanković, Nikola Tasić and many other scientists. The examined cave system consists of two horizons of cave channels: older dry - fossil, and younger river - active. The total length of the examined cave channels is greater than 10,000 meters, with speleologists justifying the assumption that the underground space is actually many times larger. 900-meter-long trails have been arranged for tourist visits. The cave space consists of monumental, beautiful halls with sound names: Preston, Block Hall, Concert Hall, Bat Hall, etc. For now, the visible wealth of cave jewelry is presented by, among others: Stogovi, Fontana, Plast, Bison, Imperial Lodge, Conductor, Orchestra ... Lazar's cave is also an important archeological site. Three cultural horizons have been discovered in the cave. The oldest settlement in the cave belongs to the beginning of the Copper Age, salkuca-gumelnica culture. Ceramic objects and bone tools were made with a lot of imagination and sense for their shapes and ornamentation. Among other economic activities, copper processing was one of the basic occupations. Awls, needles, chisels, buckles and other items made here are considered to be the oldest copper finds in Serbia. In the early Bronze Age, about 4500 years ago, the cave served as a hunting station, and again, somewhat later in the Iron Age, in the 6th century BC, it became an important metallurgical center. Objects made of bronze and iron show an extraordinarily high range of knowledge of metallurgical technique and a special aesthetic sense for decorating cast and forged objects. These items were exported to neighboring areas and served as valuable goods in the exchange of goods. The living world of Lazar's Cave abounds in numerous, insufficiently studied life forms. Caves, as a closed system, lead their inhabitants along their own paths of evolution. The most numerous inhabitants of the cave today are bats. In the interior of this cave, 24 species out of 27 registered in the Balkans have found their favorite habitat.