Google honors Vietnam’s Son Doong cave on homepage

The image of Son Doong, the world’s largest cave in the central province of Quang Binh, appeared on Google’s homepage in 17 countries on Thursday.

Google Doodle depicts the image of a giant sinkhole deep inside the cave with illuminating sunlight in honor of the day that local Ho Khanh and experts of the British Cave Research Association finished their exploration and declared Son Doong the world’s largest cave on April 14, 2009.

A screenshot from Google Doodle shows the image of a giant sinkhole deep inside Son Doong cave with illuminating sunlight on its homepage on April 14, 2022.

The image appears not just in Vietnam but 16 other countries: Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Moldova, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Virgin Islands and the U.K.

The Google Doodle is a special temporary presentation that commemorates holidays, events, achievements and people.

Son Doong, part of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in central Vietnam, has hogged the international spotlight since it opened to tourists in 2013.

It comprises at least 150 individual caves, a dense subterranean jungle and several underground rivers.

Tours to Son Doong only allows up to 1,000 visitors per year for conservation reasons, and are only available from January to August.

In 2019, Google also honored Hoi An ancient town on its homepage.