Touristic caves in Turkey's Mersin now ‘a garbage dump’

MERSİN – Doğan News Agency

A documentary has revealed that the tourist-drawing Cennet and Cehennem (meaning heaven and hell in English) Caves in the southern province of Mersin’s Silifke district have unofficially become garbage dumps. 

The documentary team, working for a TV channel, jumped into the 110-meter-deep caves with parachutes. Director Cemal Mekan said, “Something made us very confused. We saw a pebbled field right below the view terrace. When we went down, we saw a sea of plastic bottles. There were lots of wastes, even a wheelbarrow.”  

Located on the Mersin-Silifke highway in the Mediterranean region, the caves of Heaven and Hell are actually two deep sinkholes. 

The Heaven Cave is home to a Zeus Temple from the Hellenistic era. The sound of ground water can easily be heard in this cave. 

Mekan also suggested that as the caves are not unreachable, “mountaineers can go and clean [the caves].”