Buried underground, he broke the world record

The Guinness Book of Records is an annual review of world records, both of human achievements and natural phenomena. It was first published in 1955 by the Guinness brewery. Today, it is published in more than a hundred countries around the world in more than 23 languages. In 2005, the fiftieth jubilee edition of the collection was published.

For a total of 464 days, Milutin Veljković was walled up in the Samar cave in the Svrljig village of Kopajkošara, setting a Guinness record in the stay of a man underground.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its release, the jubilee of that event was marked in front of the Samar cave, and the film "Speleonaut / Under the Stone Sky" by Sonja Đekić about his fifteen-month solitude in the cave was shown.

The cave itself, the village, but also the then young speleologist Milutin Veljković, was celebrated far and wide by an endeavor at the beginning of the seventies, and even attracted the attention of the world public.

In June 1969, then 34-year-old Milutin, conducting a scientific experiment, was continuously walled up in a cave, I stayed in it for a total of 464 days, breaking the world record in staying underground, which until then, with 109 days, held by the Frenchman Henri Fiout .

He succeeded in his endeavor by maintaining a radio connection with the village, eating from cans and rusks and with the help of the generator he had in the cave. Most locals still remember Milutin coming out of the cave where several thousand people were waiting for him.

Milutin published a book about his stay in the Samar cave, "Under the Stone Sky", based on the diary he kept during his solitude, which revives everyday affairs (preparing coffee, collecting cave fauna "), but also dramatic events such as extracting his own teeth. longing for a woman, fighting floods and hallucinations and other things.

Not much is known about this cave and the cave system of Jezava, despite its former world fame, today, except among speleologists and adventurers.

Samar Cave is located in untouched nature near Svrljig, on the slopes of Mount Kalafat near the village of Kopajkoshara.

The cave was formed by the Kopajska river and is over three kilometers long. The sinkhole flows into one end of the cave, and exits at the other end of the cave, creating a waterfall of about five meters in height.

The main channel of the cave is rich in whirlpools and cascades, so it is not recommended to visit the cave on its own because of the numerous water obstacles and labyrinths.

The skull of a cave lion, as well as the remains of a cave bear and a Kabaloid horse, have been found in this cave so far.