MAE SAI, Thailand (AP) — Caves may be magical places in the eyes of explorers, but as millions of Thais following the desperate search this week for a dozen schoolboys and their soccer coach trapped inside a massive flooded cavern have learned, they are also dangerous.
Thai soldiers searching for the missing children and their coach march out of the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand on Friday, June 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
"Dark, silent and often impenetrable, caves are deeply mysterious and, as such, they have always had a strong fascination in human societies," said Edoardo Siani, who teaches cultural anthropology at Kyoto University. "They can also be inaccessible and lethal."
A rescuer makes her way down muddy steps past water pump hoses at the entrance to a cave complex where it's believed that 12 soccer team members and their coach went missing, Friday, June 29, 2018, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
https://hosted.ap.org/republicanher...ins-thai-cave-search-muddy-slog?id=i-10550087
Thai soldiers searching for the missing children and their coach march out of the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand on Friday, June 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
"Dark, silent and often impenetrable, caves are deeply mysterious and, as such, they have always had a strong fascination in human societies," said Edoardo Siani, who teaches cultural anthropology at Kyoto University. "They can also be inaccessible and lethal."
A rescuer makes her way down muddy steps past water pump hoses at the entrance to a cave complex where it's believed that 12 soccer team members and their coach went missing, Friday, June 29, 2018, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
https://hosted.ap.org/republicanher...ins-thai-cave-search-muddy-slog?id=i-10550087