Montreal’s Massive 15,000-Year-Old Cave Hidden Under A Borough | Hidden Montreal - video Dailymotion

MTL Blog

Embark on an adventure through five of Montreal’s most interesting, mysterious and unusual secret places. From giants hanging high above the city to a 15,000-year-old cave beneath busy streets, join your host Alex Melki and discover Montreal’s best-hidden spots.    New episodes every Wednesday on Narcity.com, YouTube, Facebook, IGTV.    In this episode, Alex Melki explores a massive cave as old as the Ice Age located in the middle of a populated Montreal borough. The deeper he goes into this world of darkness the more is revealed.    Subscribe to Narcity: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFpZe5l08R2LWvrVg0zyXhA    For more information, visit:  Alex Melki's Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/alexmelki/  Société québécoise de spéléologie  https://speleo.membogo.com/fr/caverne-de-saint-leonard    More episodes from Hidden Montreal:  Montreal’s Mysterious Pink House | Hidden Montreal  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1r_M1ZfIkY    About Narcity:  Narcity is the spark that powers your relationship with the awesome city where you live. Every single day, it gives you all you need to know about what's new, what's now, and what's next, as well as the tools you need to connect with the people, places, and passions in your city.    Narcity.com is owned and operated by Narcity Media, the leading digital media publisher for Gen Z and millennials, covering breaking local news and trends across North America. Narcity Media’s extensive network of journalists and creators spans from coast to coast to coast with the sole purpose of creating local content that engages communities. The brand’s news and travel websites attract 23M readers each month and its social channels reach 5M people daily.    For more information, please visit https://www.narcitymedia.com/.    Subscribe to our YouTube channel and visit us on:  Our App: https://www.narcity.com/download-app  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NarcityCanada/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/narcitycanada/?hl=en  Twitter: https://twitter.com/NarcityCanada  Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/NarcityMedia/      Montreal’s Massive 15,000-Year-Old Cave Hidden Under A Borough | Hidden Montreal    #montreal #hiddenplaces #cave

Transcript

00:00 It's absolutely wild to think that just below these city streets, in one of Canada's biggest cities, is a place as old as the Ice Age and buried in legend.

00:11 After Toronto, Montreal has the biggest population of Italian Canadians in the country, and you'll find most of them living right here in Saint-Léonard.

00:27 On the surface, Saint-Léonard's iconic duplexes and treeplexes decorate this part of the city.

00:33 But beneath the busy streets of Saint-Léonard is a secret that's almost 15,000 years old.

00:41 Walking down this part of Saint-Léonard doesn't stand out in any way. I mean, this looks like a regular city street.

00:47 But in this park is a system of underground caves so ancient, they're unlike anything else in Montreal.

00:55 The Saint-Léonard cavern made it into a local newspaper over 200 years ago, when a farmer came across an opening somewhere around this park in 1811.

01:05 Some stories say that indigenous people used the cave as a home a long, long time ago.

01:11 Other reports suggest that it was used as a weapons storage facility.

01:15 Either way, one thing's for sure, this place is really, really old.

01:20 Alright, so how does a cave like this come to be? Well, about 15,000 years ago, this whole park was covered in a massive wall of ice, as big as something like you'd see on Game of Thrones.

01:29 And in the process of the ice shifting, it tears open a hole in the rock, and you end up with a cave.

01:36 [Music]

01:54 Stepping inside, things quickly get real dark, so it's lights on.

01:59 [Music]

02:07 You might not be able to see it at first, but there are 450 million year old fossils spread all over this cavern.

02:14 Seriously, they are everywhere.

02:16 Proof that life once lived here, a long time ago.

02:20 Alright, now, it gets a lot more narrow the deeper you go. I mean, I'm barely a foot on either side of me, and I am surrounded by rock.

02:32 And the fact that this is right here, in the middle of a city, is a little mind-blowing.

02:38 If you are claustrophobic, I gotta say, this probably isn't for you.

02:45 Now this is one of the most narrow parts of the cavern, and if you're wondering just how dark it really is right here, check this out.

02:54 [Music]

02:57 It's dark.

02:58 [Music]

03:01 And you thought that was cool. We're about to go deeper.

03:04 [Music]

03:13 Now, originally this cave was thought to be about 100 feet long, but in 2017, a massive breakthrough revealed that there's a lot more to this place than a lot of people thought.

03:22 [Music]

03:26 The second, deeper cave measures in at just over 800 meters. There's even a bed of water at the bottom.

03:32 And despite that, there is no life down here whatsoever.

03:36 [Music]

03:43 Now I've said this a ton of times before already, but this place just keeps getting narrower and narrower.

03:48 However, just beyond this corridor, it's supposed to open up into something pretty special.

03:53 [Music]

04:01 I remember when I said there was no life down here, I might have spoken too soon.

04:05 See all these little white dots? They're mushrooms, the kind you find in Demont-Berre.

04:11 [Music]

04:17 Now this second, deeper cave isn't quite safe to check out just yet, but they do have plans to open it up to the public in the next couple years.

04:25 Past this point, the water starts getting pretty deep, and I have no safety nets or security or wires or even a boat to get me across, so I'm going to have to call it a day.

04:35 [Music]

04:40 But as for the rest of the Saint-Lenard cave, you can actually come and check it out right now.

04:45 Alright, let's get out of here.

04:47 [Music]

04:50 And there you have it, a 15,000 year old cave buried just beneath the city streets in plain sight.

04:56 That's it for today, but I will see you next time with another hidden place in Montreal.

05:00 [Music]

05:07 Okay.

05:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Montreal’s Massive 15,000-Year-Old Cave Hidden Under A Borough | Hidden Montreal

Category

Transcript

Recommended