By Alimat Aliyeva

Scientists from China, France, Portugal, Belgium and other countries gathered for the opening ceremony of the 23rd joint international scientific expedition to Asia's longest Shuangge Cave in Guizhou Province in southwestern China, Azernews reports.

The expedition is scheduled to take place from October 7 to 24, and the results of the archaeological finds will be announced on October 24. Previous scientific expeditions have discovered 44 individual fossils of giant pandas. The oldest of them dates back 100,000 years ago, and the most recent is several hundred years ago.

The fossils prove that Guizhou was once home to giant pandas. Currently, it is known that these animals live in the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu. Zhou Wenlong, deputy secretary general of the Guizhou Archaeological Association, said the upcoming expedition will continue to study the cave's origin, formation and evolution.

According to the results of the joint expedition in 2023, the cave network has 107 sites connected to each other. Its length is 409.9 kilometers, which makes the cave the longest in Asia and the third largest in the world. It is also the longest dolomite cave in the world.

Jean Bottazzi, a French archaeologist with more than thirty years of cave research experience in China, will lead the upcoming cave research. He calls Shuangge Cave his second home. According to the archaeologist, since the late 1980s, during excavations conducted in the cave by Chinese and foreign experts, many cave fossils and living organisms have been discovered, providing rich and valuable scientific material. During this year's scientific expedition, Suiyang County, which manages the cave area, is organizing a photo contest and short videos on geological science to promote the cave geological park.