These caves were formed by geologic activity which was centered in Virunga Volcanoes. The caves are 1.25 miles and are located outside the town of Musanze and are just 90 minutes’ drive from the city of Kigali. The caves harbor lots of bat species and it has got green vegetation which covers its outside part and good for a fantastic photo shoot. These caves were also used as shelter during war time and it’s really important to the local people. The caves are protected and its only expert guides that are allowed to lead every tour and these explain the history of the caves from their early formation to present day.
The Musanze caves tour is best done in the afternoon after doing gorilla trekking and it takes 2.5 hours and the activity can be done throughout the year. Bookings to these caves can be best done by Rwanda Development Board.
A cave is known as a natural underground space which is large enough for human beings to enter. As you visit Volcanoes National Park, you can as well get a chance to tour the famous Musanze caves which are 2 kilometers long underneath and were unveiled to be visited in 2013 by Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Defense forces.
These caves can best be sighted in the north of the country in Musanze district, the site had established many tourist walk ways, stairs as well as trails that take you to the dark parts of the caves which illustrates a picture of a house with several corridors and rooms. The floor of the caves are paved with stairs to ease movement of the tourists who visit these caves.
These caves are also believed to be as a result of volcanic eruption which happed decades ago and these offer an in depth understanding of the geological as well as the geographical historical development of the globe. Musanze caves are explored from volcanoes national park and are located at the foothills of this famous park.
Most of the caves in Rwanda were developed from Cenozoic volcanic rocks like Manjari which is about 1.660m and Nyiragihima found in Ruhengeri which is also 1.116m in the Northern Province, these ate 52 surveyed caves within this province and they cover 15.2 km cave passages. More so, the longest of Rwanda’s caves is called Ubuvumo Bwibihonga which is a multi-level system of parallel lava tubes with a length of 4.530m. The Musanze cave is 2km long and lies in the volcanic region where lava flow dating from over 65 million years to day have also created the Albertine Rift valley, this famous cave also has got 31 entrances.it was formed from the lava layers of Bisoke and Sabyinyo volcanoes and its entrances are vast exceeding 10km with several side passages leading off the main cave.
Apart from a visit to the caves, tourists who travel to Rwanda can as well feed their eyes with many other tourist attractions including; Buhanga Eco park famous for the coronation of Rwanda former kings, karisismbi volcano climbing, a trek to Dian Fossey grave, golden monkey tracking, trekking mountain gorillas and chimpanzee and well as a visit to the twin lakes of Burera and Ruhondo.