Leviathan Cave

Leviathan Cave, also known as the Grotte de Leviathan,{{cite web |url=http://www-sop.inria.fr/agos/sis/DB/countries.html |title=World Cave List |publisher=Sop.inria.fr |date=15 August 1997 |access-date=24 November 2011 |archive-date=24 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424225845/http://www-sop.inria.fr/agos/sis/DB/countries.html |url-status=live }} is a lava tube in eastern Kenya first discovered in 1975.{{cite journal|date=July 2004|title=Minerogenesis of Volcanic Caves of Kenya|url=http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1220&context=ijs|journal=International Journal of Speleology|volume=32|pages=3–18|author1=Forti|author2=Galli|author3=Rossi|doi=10.5038/1827-806X.32.1.1|access-date=7 Apr 2017|doi-access=free|archive-date=9 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170409021026/http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1220&context=ijs|url-status=live}} Although it has been segmented by the movement of tectonic plates, the overall length of the lava tube spans a distance of {{convert|11.5|km|abbr=on}}.{{Cite book|title=Natural Wonders of the World|publisher=Reader's Digest Association, Inc|year=1980|isbn=0-89577-087-3|editor-last=Scheffel|editor-first=Richard L.|location=United States of America|pages=217|editor-last2=Wernet|editor-first2=Susan J.}} It is the longest and deepest known lava tube in Africa.

Leviathan Cave is located in the Chyulu Hills National Park at the edge of the Nyiri Desert, which is found northwest of Tsavo West National Park.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TTf0Aki6AUQC&pg=PA140|title=Kenya|publisher=Lonely Planet|year=2006|isbn=978-1-74059-743-2|pages=140–|author1=Tom Parkinson|author2=Matt Phillips|author3=Will Gourlay|access-date=30 July 2012}}

In the 1980s, Leviathan Cave was the third-longest known lava tube in the world.{{Cite journal|last=Crawford|first=R.L.|year=1983|title=The World's Longest Lava Tube Caves|url=http://www.vulcanospeleology.org/sym03/ISV3x15.pdf|journal=National Speleological Society: Geo2 - Newsletter of the Section of Cave Geology and Geography|volume=10 (2) (Win 1982)|access-date=2017-04-08|archive-date=2016-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211144/http://www.vulcanospeleology.org/sym03/ISV3x15.pdf|url-status=live}} However, modern surveys have found newer, longer tubes, and have located longer passages of known tubes. Leviathan Cave is still the longest tube in Africa, but is only the 11th-longest lava tube in the world.{{Cite web|url=http://www.caverbob.com/lava.htm|title=World's Longest Lava Tubes|last=Gulden|first=Bob|date=March 21, 2017|website=Caver Bob|access-date=2017-04-07|archive-date=2013-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130125063750/http://www.caverbob.com/lava.htm|url-status=usurped}}