The Cave the Elephants Carved
On the slopes of an old volcano in Kenya, elephants walk into a dark cave at night and dig at the walls with their tusks, deep underground.
What was reported
Kitum Cave is a cave about 200 metres deep in the side of Mount Elgon, on the Kenya–Uganda border. At night, herds of elephants walk into it in single file, through total darkness, to reach its walls.
There they scrape the rock with their tusks and eat it. The walls are scored with tusk marks.
Explanations offered
The rock is rich in salt and minerals that are scarce in the elephants' diet. Some scientists think that over thousands of years, the elephants themselves have dug much of the cave deeper, making it one of the few caves partly made by animals.
- When
- For thousands of years
- Where
- Mount Elgon, Western Kenya
- Witnesses
- Rangers, scientists and visitors
- Status
- Mostly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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