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/.
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Montreal’s Massive 15,000-Year-Old Cave Hidden Under A Borough | Hidden Montreal
#montreal #hiddenplaces #cave
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
Category
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TravelTranscript
00:00It'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.
00:20After Toronto, Montreal has the biggest population of Italian Canadians in the country, and you'll find most of them living right here in St. Leonard.
00:27On the surface, St. Leonard's iconic duplexes and treeplexes decorate this part of the city.
00:35But beneath the busy streets of St. Leo is a secret that's almost 15,000 years old.
00:41Walking down this part of St. Leonard doesn't stand out in any way. I mean, this looks like a regular city street, but in this park is a system of underground caves so ancient they're unlike anything else in Montreal.
00:55The St. Leonard cavern made it into a local newspaper over 200 years ago, when a farmer came across an opening somewhere around this park in 1811.
01:06Some stories say that indigenous people used the cave as a home a long, long time ago. Other reports suggest that it was used as a weapons storage facility.
01:15Either way, one thing's for sure, this place is really, really old.
01:20All right, 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.
01:29And in the process of the ice shifting, it tears open a hole in the rock, and you end up with a cave.
01:49Stepping inside, things quickly get real dark, so it's lights on.
02:08You might not be able to see it at first, but there are 450 million year old fossils spread all over this cavern. Seriously, they are everywhere.
02:17Proof that life once lived here, a long time ago.
02:21All right, 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.
02:32And the fact that this is right here, in the middle of a city, is a little mind-blowing.
02:38If you are claustrophobic, I gotta say, this probably isn't for you.
02:46Now, 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.
02:56It's dark.
03:01And you thought that was cool. We're about to go deeper.
03:08Now, 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.
03:26The second, deeper cave measures in at just over 800 meters. There's even a bed of water at the bottom, and despite that, there is no life down here whatsoever.
03:38Oh.
03:43Now, I've said this a ton of times before already, but this place just keeps getting narrower and narrower. However, just beyond this corridor, it's supposed to open up into something pretty special.
03:53I remember when I said there was no life down here, I might have spoken too soon. See all these little white dots? They're mushrooms, the kind you find in Demont-Berre.
04:10Now, this second, deeper cave isn't quite safe to check out just yet.
04:14But they do have plans to open it up to the public in the next couple years.
04:18Past 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.
04:31But as for the rest of the Saint-Lenard cave, you can actually come and check it out.
04:35Alright, let's get out of here.
04:39And there you have it, a 15,000-year-old cave buried just beneath the city streets in plain sight.
04:45That's it for today, but I will see you next time with another hidden place in Montreal.
05:05.