La Canya dels Pujols

Caves + 1, Andorra. La Canya dels Pujols, a hundred-meter cave about 80 meters above the riverbed below. 

There is a path of less than a kilometer leading to the place and there is also a sign at the branch of the path, although it was not easy to find information about the existence of the cave on the Internet. The easiest way to get to the cave is to start from the tourist parking lot next to the bridge and roundabouts in the village of Margineda. The path can be found along Carrer des Emprius, between industrial buildings.

There is a man-made stone wall at the mouth of the cave. Next to it is a small side passage of a couple of meters. The main cave itself has two branches, the larger of which is partly two-story and partly a narrow crawling, partly underground high canyon. I myself saw maybe 30-40 meters of tunnel in the cave, but I have to trust the experts' opinion that someone has fit into the narrow gaps in the canyon and gone far. It seemed to me that even Jukka or Velma's section wouldn't have fit in them, but maybe someone has or I didn't notice something. Nice cave though, the bottom is fine sand/dust and as usual some small waste in there, maybe from bats. But no modern human garbage such as beer cans 👍

The main cave is at the coordinates N 42.482409 E 1.486825. There's also a side cave at the coordinates . I of course scanned both using my iPhone LiDAR Scanner. The main cave 3D model can be found here in GLB or Blender format, and you can rotate it on your browser screen by clicking on this link. Or just a video fly through below:

I also converted the model to a cave map using my Cave Outliner software. Here's a view of the map (or access the high-res version as PDF here):

The side cave 3D model can be found here in GLB or Blender format, and you can rotate it on your browser screen by clicking on this link. Or just a video fly through below:

I again converted the model to a cave map below (or use the high-res version as PDF):

Pujols is part of the Balma de la Marginada historical human settlement area where excavations have been done, there is a little more information about Balma. The area has the first known traces of humans in Andorra. Balma is under the lip of a large cliff, so the cave may be the same but not cave-like. At this point in Andorra there are good hiking trails anyway.

Links:

https://comusantjulia.ad/ca/actualitat/noticies/intervencio-arqueologica-a-la-canya-dels-pujols/

https://fi.wikiloc.com/vaellus-reitit/la-margineda-cova-de-la-margineda-183029836?utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=share&utm_source=9419767 (La margineda Cova de la Margineda) [but it's worth starting the route from the bottom along the path and not along the contour]

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balma_de_la_Margineda

https://visitandorra.com/en/culture/la-margineda-archaeological-site/

See also my other articles about swimming and saunas in Andorra, or the article about skiing on a children's ski slope.

Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.