FOR just a short window one of the world’s most stunning yet lethal wonders became accessible.
Canadian explorer George Kourounis was one of the few who were able to – and dared to – enter the beautiful but deadly crystal cave in Mexico.
The treacherous cavern, concealed 1,000ft below the ground, is filled with enormous crystals capable of killing visitors in a matter of minutes.
Anchored to the walls of the blistering hot cave are hundreds of otherworldly crystals that have grown uninterrupted for at least half a million years.
The dazzling glass-like shards deep beneath the Sierra de Naica Mountain in the heart of Chihuahua are up to 36ft long and weigh up to a staggering 55 tonnes.
George, 53, told The Sun it was the most amazing place he had ever visited – a tall order considering the wild places he has graced around the globe.
He said: “It is fascinating, it really is. I was one of the few people who had the privilege of going inside that cave years ago when it was still accessible.
“The opportunity is now lost but it is like going into another planet.
“The air temperature is so unbearable – it is so hot and so humid that the air just hits you in the face like a hammer.
“Even with special chilled air respirators and ice-filled suits, we could only go in for around 40 minutes at a time.”
Although equipped with the assets to make it the perfect tourist hotspot, the cave has all the makings of a death trap.
The air is acidic and temperatures can hit sweltering highs of 58C with humidity levels close to 100 per cent.
But even while wearing heat-protection suits and breathing apparatus, visitors can only tolerate the cave’s conditions for around 15 to 60 minutes before likely losing consciousness.
George added: “You look around and it’s like Superman’s fortress of solitude. All these giant crystals made it like being on an alien planet.
“It was just so beautiful but every cell in your body is just screaming at you to leave because you overheat so fast in that extreme environment with the heat and humidity.
“But that’s what makes it even more beautiful because you know your time is so limited in there. That makes it really special.”
The spectacular yet perilous cavern remained one of Earth’s secrets for thousands of years despite the neighbouring Naica Mine being worked for centuries.
Two unsuspecting miners stumbled across the natural marvel – now named Giant Crystal Cave – in 2000 while excavating a new tunnel for a mining company.
Towering above them were endless luminous milky-white crystals – some of the largest ever discovered.
But these jagged crystals did not achieve their monumental form overnight.
Scientists who risked their lives by venturing into the cave believe it could have taken between 500,000 and 900,000 years for them to grow.
An uprising of magma millions of years ago forced hot, mineral-rich waters into the cavern, which spans as wide as a football pitch and as high as two-storey building.
The gypsum minerals packed in the water, coupled with a magma chamber below the grotto acting like a cooker, provided the perfect condition for the crystals to form.
A steady heat was maintained for hundreds of thousands of years – causing the gypsum in the water to transform into selenite crystals.
The lethal translucent beams now measure up to 36ft long and many are even wide enough to be walked along.
They are too hot for a bare hand to touch and are razor-sharp yet as soft as human fingernails.
In 2017, biologists made the astounding discovery of a life form trapped inside the crystals estimated to be around 50,000 years old.
A team of NASA microbiologists found the microbes – which are too small to be seen without a microscope – lurking within the fluid in the shards.
Researchers believe the microbes are able to live off manganese, iron and other metallic elements present in the crystals.
Announcing the remarkable find at the American Association for the Advancement of Science that year, Penelope Boston – chief of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute – described the microbes as “super life”.
But it is unlikely the cave will ever be explored again as it reflooded in recent years after mining operations ceased.
The cave’s accessibility was dependent on the mine’s water pumps, which were stopped in 2017 – allowing groundwater to refill the cave.
For two almost decades, the crystals were exposed to air, but now resubmerged in water it is believed they may have started growing again.
