Gabon Caves, Philippines

In the Philippines, you'll discover many caves from island to island but the Tabon Caves are located on Lipuun Point in the southwestern part of the Province of Palawan on Palawan Island. Out of 215 known caves, 29 have been explored and seven of these are open to the public. There are no legends available online, however, the cave does hold a lot of history. Protected by the government apart of the Lipuun Point Reservation, the cave holds cultural artifacts and many great finds such as the Tabon man discovered in 2007 with remains dating back to 47,000 years old and known to be the earliest human remains in the Philippines. Another interesting discovery inside the Tabon is a gold ornamental pendant which consisted of an image of Garuda, the eagle bird who is the mount of Hindu deity Vishnu. This find suggests a presence of Hinduism in the Philippines as well as an active trade of many specialized goods and gold between India and Philippines and coastal regions of Vietnam and China. Additionally, inside the caves are Manunggul burial jars as seen in the photo below and over 1,500 burial of them have been recovered. The Tabon is visited frequently as a tourist attraction because of the beautifully shaped limestone and water locals and visitors are able to dip in.