Coves del Drach
Landmark · Mallorca
Checked
A live string quartet plays classical music from boats on Llac Martel, one of the largest underground lakes in the world, at the end of an hour-long walk through Coves del Drach's chambers of stalactites. The caves were known by 1338 and explored by French speleologist Édouard Martel in 1896. Daily tours, around 16 euros.
French writer Gaston Vuillier crossed part of the underground lake by raft on a visit in 1888 and published an account that made the caves known across Europe years before Édouard Martel ever arrived. The caves run roughly 1,200 metres through four connected chambers, Black, White, French and one named for the Archduke Luis Salvador of Austria, reaching a maximum depth of 25 metres. When Martel returned in September 1896 with his colleague Louis Armand, they pushed past the already-mapped sections and found two further caves along with the lake that now carries his name. The dramatic lighting that washes the chambers today, building to the Dawn on the Lake effect during the concert, was designed by Carles Buïgas, the same Catalan engineer behind Barcelona's Font Màgica. Inside, the temperature holds steady around 17 to 21 degrees Celsius year round, whatever the Mallorcan summer is doing outside.
What you see
The lake's lighting shifts colour with the water's depth, pale near the shallow edges and deepening to blue where the floor drops furthest away.
Practical
A separated cycle lane runs along the PMV-4023 into Porto Cristo, keeping bikes off the main carriageway. The cave entrance has free parking and picnic tables.
caveunderground lakegeology