About

Ogbunike Caves is a collection of caves in Ogbunike, Oyi local government area, Anambra, South East Nigeria. It is a natural tourist attraction and one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. This cave features a waterfall, a stream, a warm water pool, and some natural vegetations. The main cave consists of a massive structure with a big open chamber of about 5m high, 10m wide and 30m long at the entrance. There are ten tunnels of varying length and size at the main chamber leading to different directions. Some of the tunnels are interconnected whereas others are not. These tunnels lead to different chambers of varying sizes. Some of the caves are occupied by animals as their natural habitat. The bat parlor is occupied by a large colony of bats. The crocodile chamber is occupied by crocodiles while the python rock is occupied by an African rock python. There is also a chamber housing a tortoise believed to have lived for over a thousand year. This tortoise is the deity of Ogbunike people.

History of Ogbunike Caves

There is no written account on the history of Ogbunike caves. But according to forklore, Ogbunike cave has been know to the people of Ogbunike for centuries. Their annual festival of "Ime Ogba" is held commemoration of the discovery of the cave. The people of Ogbunike also revere the cave as one of their deities. People who are suspected to have commited a crime or people accused of commiting a crime were made to swear an oat before the cave to prove their innocence.

There has been attempts to uplift the face of the cave in order to attract tourists by successive state governmnets in Anambra. In 1991, the stairs to the cave was built by the then Anambra state governor to harness the tourism potentials of the cave.