The Mustang caves or Celestial caves of Nepal are more than 10,000 caves dug 60 meters high in the rock and accessible only through climbs made by professionals. This immense number of caves is located among the peaks of the Himalayas, in northern Nepal, exactly in the Mustang District.Some of them are unique, with only one entrance open on a vast front of jagged rocks. Others, however, were built in groups, one on top of the other, presenting vertical stacks of up to nine levels.
Archaeologists do not know who built them, nor what their function was. Moreover, it is not possible to understand how people could climb up to these cavities built several metres above the ground.
In the mid-1990s, archaeologists from Nepal and the University of Cologne began exploring the interior of the caves, finding a dozen human bodies, all at least 2,000 years old.
Since then, teams of researchers have continued to investigate the ‘Mustang Caves’. Those who have been lucky enough to visit the mysterious caves have said that they felt as if they were standing in front of a giant sandcastle.
One such person is Cory Richards, an adventure photographer, who along with archaeologist Mark Aldenderfer, climber Pete Athans and a team of explorers, went to the site in search of hidden relics and unexplored caves. "Honestly, when I got there I realized the site is bigger than anything I could have ever imagined," Richards says.
