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Abime de Bramabiau
The Bramabiau abyss is a karst site at Saint-Sauveur-Camprieu, in the Gard, in the middle of the Cévennes national park, on the Aigoual massif. A stream, the Bonheur, disappears there under the Camprieu causse and re-emerges about 800 metres further: this is the Bramabiau underground river. The name comes from Occitan and evokes the bellowing of an ox, in allusion to the noise of the water.
Édouard-Alfred Martel discovered the abyss in 1884 and crossed it for the first time over more than a kilometre in 1888, an exploration often presented as a founding act of French speleology.
A lit circuit of about a kilometre, with a guide, lets you follow the underground torrent in a joint, then discover halls with calcified walls, giants' kettles and erosion pillars. The complete caving traverse is possible only with prior authorisation from the site's reception.
