Tours
Access to the Caves is strictly controlled. In the interest of conservation, perhaps job creation as well, visitors are not allowed to explore the Caves on their own. You may only enter and venture deeper into the Caves on one of the regular scheduled tours. As the Caves are very popular you'll probably find yourself in a group of about 30 to 50 people.

Tours are led by experienced and knowledgeable guides. The Caves' management, as with many other South African attractions these days, place a lot of emphasis on employing people from the local surrounding communities - thus ensuring that the benefit of your tour fee are felt locally.

There are two tours on offer. The shorter and easier Standard Tour (09:00-16:00) is an hour long and departs every hour on the hour (six chambers). We recommend this tour to visitors with limited time, the elderly, those who have difficulty walking or suffer from mild claustrophobia. Please note that people who suffer from severe claustrophobia, breathing problems or any other ailment that may make you vulnerable to subterranean conditions should avoid entering the caves.

The 2nd tour is called the Adventure Tour, it lasts ±90-minutes and departs every hour on the half-hour. This tour goes into the deepest sections of the Caves open to the public, it's just over 1km in length. The Adventure Tour is not for the faint hearted, overweight or unfit. You have to cover some sections on your haunches and negotiate tight sections. We strongly recommend the Adventure Tour. Each new section of the Caves has a different feeling to it. We have found clients to be disappointed having enjoyed their Caves tour tremendously but having to turn around as they opted for the Standard Tour and thus could not venture deeper into the Caves.

The temperature in the caves is a warm and humid 18° C. Sensible footwear and light clothing are recommended. Pathways and stairs may be slightly uneven in places but are adequately lit when tour groups pass through. In the interest of your own safety you need to stay with your guide, don't not stray from the designated route…

Cango Caves Visitors’ Complex
The Cango Caves Visitors' Complex is a modern multi-level facility, opened in 1999, which acts as gateway to the actual Caves. The wheelchair-friendly Complex features a family restaurant, coffee shop & bar, a curio shop, an interpretive centre, an auditorium, administration offices and kennels. The Caves' ticket sales and collection office is also housed in the Complex, although pre-booking is strongly advised, as tours are often fully booked.

Cango Caves Interpretive Centre
The Interpretive Centre, housed in the Visitors' Complex, aims to provide visitors with insight on the various aspects of the Caves. This includes geological information on the how the Caves came into existence and how the various formations found inside was formed over thousands and millions of years (e.g. stalactites). Attention is also given to the history of man's exploration of the Caves, going back to the KhoiSan who originally used the first section of the Caves for shelter. The Centre has special programs for school groups. It has also introduced a Nature Trail in the vicinity of the Caves that may be explored on a guided or non-guided basis.

Exploration history
While the Caves have been in existence for millions of years the first humans to explore the Caves, that we know of, was the KhoiSan some 10 000 years ago. They used the entrance area for shelter and did not explore further into the Caves. Archaeological evidence suggests that they left the area about 500 years ago.

The Caves was only rediscovered by humans some 250 years later when a herder, Klaas Windvogel, searching for lost cattle, stumbled into the Cave entrance in 1780. A farmer from the area, a Mr. Van Zyl was then lowered down a precipice into the first cavern beyond the smallish entrance. Armed only with a candle for light he realised that he found himself in a huge cave but totally miscalculated the space in which he stood as being 5 miles long and 3 miles wide! While not nearly that big the concert-hall-sized cavern is today known as Van Zyl's Hall.

Over the years, as exploration continued, more tunnels and chambers were discovered. The first tour was conducted in 1891, in what is today known as Cango 1. The latter section of the Cango Caves was believed to have reached some 1.2km into the Swartberg Mountain. Cango 2 to 5 were only discovered between 1972 and 1975. Together they add another 4.1km to the Cave system. However the extended Cave system is not open to the public in order to preserve it better.

Conservation
Strict conservation policies are in place at the Caves. Only limited (non-coloured) lighting is used and only for as long as a tour group is within a specific area. You may only explore the caves in your particular guided group, you are not allowed to break off any of the sensitive drip-formations. Only one of the Caves' five sections is open to the public. The number of people allowed on tours are also limited, which is one of the reasons early booking is recommended. Children under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult and littering is obviously not allowed.

During the previous century the floor of large parts of Cango 1 was leveled (filled up) to provide easier access and Van Zyl's Hall was often used as a concert venue. Coloured lights were used to enhance the various huge formations in the Caves. Since that time science has gained a lot more insight into the sensitivity of ecosystems. In response to knowledge gained all the above measures have been put in place.

The Caves

A tour group in a corner of Van Zyl's Hall, the largest chamber in Cango 1.

The Cango Caves are located within a limestone belt measuring 1.5km wide and ±15km long, contained within the Swartberg Mountain Range. The limestone belt is about 750 million years old and was formed by the deposit of 'oolites'.

As is the case with most of the Karoo the Cango area used to be submerged under the ocean until geological forces caused the continental shelf to lift and rise above the ocean. For this reason a lot of marine fossils are found in the Karoo (above ground, not in the Caves).

Various dripstone formation about halfway into Cango 1.

The caves only started to form some 20 million years ago. It was formed by ground water seeping into the limestone. As the water seeped into the ground it absorbed carbon dioxide from the decaying plant and animal matter in the soil, which made it fairly acidic. As it seeped into the limestone, cavities were created that filled with water. Rivers also formed on the surface and cut deeply enough into the limestone to allow them to reach the level of the water pockets. This caused the water to flow out about 4 million years ago. The cave was then, for the first time, exposed to air and the speleothems or cave formations could begin forming.