Dâlma de Brazi Cave is located on the left slope of Scocului Mare in the upper basin of the Western Jiu, at an altitude of about 150 m from DN66A and at 1,200 m absolute altitude, near the confluence of Scocului Mare with Pârâul Jidanului. The entrance of the cave, triangular in shape although relatively large (3 x 2 m), is well masked, relatively difficult to find and is guarded by a clump of fir trees, hence the name of the cave.
Access to the area by the road DN 66A, at a distance of about 25 kilometers from Uricani. The access path to the cave starts from the road to the Oslea Massif, being difficult to notice. The road takes about 40-60 minutes, but the difficulty of the route is rewarded by the amazing view offered by the Vâlcan Mountains, located on the right and the southern branch of the Retazat Mountains, on the left. The normal duration for visiting the cave is two hours, and tourists need special equipment, during wet periods, to cross the Great Basin, such as high rubber boots and double light sources.
It is a cave consisting of a main gallery and a branch, of about 226 meters. The main gallery is 3-5 meters wide and 3 to 10 meters high. The space widens to the north to the Great Basin Hall, so named due to the temporary lake located in a depression in the floor, a lake that is formed during wet periods and can reach up to 1 m deep. The lake together with the groups of speleothems from the class of stalagmites and calcite leaks on its edge, including a beautiful stalagmite 2 meters high, which gives the place a special charm, tourists-photographers being able to make unique images here.
The presence in this place of the bones of Ursus Spelaeus
To the southwest starts a branch, an ascending gallery concretionary at that point "La Strâmtoare" forces a real speleological "gymnastics" for the passage to the terminal part. Stalactites and stalagmites, as well as rich calcite crusts, also offer pleasant photographic subjects.
The presence in this place of the bones of Ursus Spelaeus proves that the morphology of the gallery has changed a lot in the last thousands of years, since the great carnivore stepped here for the last time.
The layout of the galleries justifies the assumption that the Great Basin Hall represented the point of convergence of two waters: the first, coming on "La Strâmtoare", through the side gallery, from the slope, the other representing a spring from the depths of the massif. The two waters then went south, exiting through the current portal.
Among the more than 300 cartographic caves now in the area, Dâlma cu Brazi was among the few known and mentioned in older works. In 1929 P.A. Chappuis and A. Winkler collected underground fauna and made a first sketch of the cave. Biospeleological research was continued by speleologists in Bucharest in 1957. In 1971 C. Goran made the complete plan of the cavity.
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