Riesending cave
The Riesending-Schachthöhle in the Untersberg, with a surveyed length of 27.3 kilometres and a depth of 1149 metres, is the longest and deepest known cave in Germany.
EspeleoWorld
Riesending cave
The Riesending-Schachthöhle in the Untersberg, with a surveyed length of 27.3 kilometres and a depth of 1149 metres, is the longest and deepest known cave in Germany.
Bischofswiesen
Length: 19500 m
Updated record
https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/riesending-schachthoehle-bischofswiesen-landkreis-berchtesgadener-land-2
Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.
The Riesending-Schachthöhle in the Untersberg, with a surveyed length of 27.3 kilometres and a depth of 1149 metres, is the longest and deepest known cave in Germany.
Description
Morphology
With a surveyed length of 27.3 kilometres and a depth of 1149 metres, the Riesending-Schachthöhle is the longest and deepest known cave in Germany.
Other details
The cave has been designated a particularly valuable geotope by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU).
History
The Riesending-Schachthöhle was discovered in autumn 1996 by researchers from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Höhlenforschung Bad Cannstatt e. V. The elaborate rescue of Johann Westhauser in 2014 brought it international media attention.
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Source: Wikidata – cave items (Germany) (www.wikidata.org), modified. CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Wikidata (CC0 1.0) · data as of 2026 · Source: German Wikipedia – article leads (cave descriptions) (de.wikipedia.org), modified. CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Wikipedia contributors (de.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0 · Text by Wikipedia contributors (Riesending-Schachthöhle) · adapted by Espeleoworld (normalized, translated); the adaptation is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · description · obtained 2026-11-13 · https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riesending-Schachth%C3%B6hle · data as of 2026