Giant Ape Cave

Giant Ape Cave

The Gaoping Giant Ape Cave is situated on the mountainside of the Taiyangcao area in the southwest of Gaodianzi Township, roughly 33 kilometers northeast of Jiànzhī County. The east entrance is triangular, standing 2 meters tall and stretching 3.8 meters wide, whereas the west entrance is rectangular, measuring 2.1 meters in height and 1.8 meters in width. The cave is tunnel-like, featuring smooth walls and a level floor with minimal elevation changes. There are two branch caves within. The eastern branch winds regularly in northeast–southwest and northwest–southeast directions. Upon entering from the east mouth, the passage is initially narrow, but after crawling for twenty to thirty meters, it gradually opens up. About a hundred meters in, there is a pool of water, muddy and impassable. Turning westward, the cave becomes rugged and dry, with over ten meters of accumulated soil deposits. It leads to the west entrance, where faint light from outside can be seen through a partially blocked opening. Visitors can crawl out by pushing against the rocks and squirming through the earth. The entire cave stretches 315 meters in length.

In the 1970s, local farmers, seeking to sell “dragon bones” dug from caves for profit, scraped away the mud at the east entrance and unearthed fossils, which they sold to the supply and marketing cooperative. These fossils were eventually exported to Hong Kong, where they were discovered by experts from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Tracing them back to Gaoping in Jiànzhī, the researchers uncovered more than 30,000 giant ape fossils. The cave is geographically positioned at 110° east longitude and 30°39′ north latitude, with its floor at an altitude of 740 meters. Below lies an ancient riverbed, now dried up, scattered with pebbles and sand. To the north, a small river flows from the south into the cavern, traveling 2,000 meters underground before resurfacing. The cave hosts a remarkably diverse range of associated animal fossils, a phenomenon rarely seen worldwide. Since the 1970s, experts such as Zheng Shaohua from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have conducted multiple scientific expeditions to Jiànzhī. The research topic “Study on the Origins of Early Humans and Their Environmental Context” was included in China’s national “Ninth Five-Year Plan Climbing Project.” The site has been designated as a provincial-level cultural heritage protection unit by the People’s Government of Hubei Province. Today, an archway and exhibition wall have been erected at the east and west entrances of the cave, overlooking National Highway 318, the future expressway, and the upcoming Wanzhi Railway.