Imagine the situation: you fell behind your group on a ski trip and got lost. You don't have a tent, you only have a sleeping bag and matches. Evening, snowstorm. You need to do something to avoid freezing.

Or you deliberately went into the forest without taking a tent with you (you decided to save weight).

What do you need to know?

1. How to build a snow shelter (snow caves, igloos)
2. How to set up your own bivouac
3. How to make a long-burning fire
4. How to make a shelter from what you have (booth, canopy, etc.)

So, the tourist got lost, wandered for a long time in search of a path and decided to spend the night. How to arrange an overnight stay?

Overnight with a campfire

1.Choosing a place to stay overnight

• The bivouac must be protected from the wind (the slightest wind increases the frost)
• It is best to spend the night in dense forest or a small hollow
• Avoid clearings, forest edges, hills (the wind is strong there)
• If the snow is shallow, then dig a place for a fire to the ground; if it is deep, make a fire on a site made of damp logs, or use special types of fires (Evenki see below)
• Prepare more firewood (so you don’t have to run around at night and look for it) or if you have an ax, knock it down sushi(dry standing tree) thicker

How to identify dry wood

• knock on it with an ax, the tree makes a characteristic ringing noise
• the bark of such trees often peels off in pieces, leaving the wood visible
• Pay attention to the top, it is “naked”
• Do not use trees lying on the ground (snow), their wood is wet
• Do not use sushin without a top; as a rule, such sushin is unsuitable

Harvesting firewood (how to properly pile dry land)

• From the side where you will cut the sushi, make a hem
• On the opposite side, about 15 cm above the first, a second cut or cut is made

• When the tree bends, rest your stick (slingshot) against it and start swinging
• The tree must fall

Option for a large group and for singles (BALAGAN)

You can spend the night well in the forest, having made a kind of “booth”, a suitable place for a camp, the snow is raked all the way to the ground. A snow bank is poured in a semicircle around the cleared area, 2 long poles are prepared, which are stuck into the snow bank; their tops are moved crosswise and tied with twine.

Then skis are stuck along the entire shaft, the ends of which rest on the cross of connected poles. After this, the entire structure is covered with blankets, creating something like a “wigwam”, open at the front. Inside, the entire floor is covered with a thick layer of pine needles; if there are no needles, then a flooring is made of poles, which are stuck at the bottom of the snow bank at some distance from the ground. The needles or flooring are covered with two blankets - and the “booth” is ready. Backpacks are brought inside and placed near the snow bank. In front of the booth, on a plot of land cleared of snow, a long taiga fire is made from thick trunks of cedar, fir, resinous spruce, dead wood, etc. When the fire burns, it is very warm inside such a room, even in severe frosts. The "booth" of the sizes shown in the figure can accommodate 8 people. Of these, 6-7 people. 1-2 people sleep covered with a blanket. They are on duty, adding wood to the fire. When camping for the night in a booth, you should place your feet towards the fire. This method is good for both large groups and one person.

"Balagan" (or rather, barrier) can be made from sticks and covered with pine needles. A “nodya” (if there are 2-3 people in the group), or a large taiga-type fire, is lit in front of the barrier.

When building booths, the direction of the wind should be taken into account. It is impossible, for example, to cut down forest for a fire on the windward side of the bivouac, thereby destroying the protection from the wind. To regulate the thermal conditions in a “booth” of a simplified design, one side wall should be made of a blanket. By tilting the blanket to a greater or lesser angle, you can use the maximum amount of heat from the fire.

The floor of the booth should be covered with spruce branches; if spruce branches are not available, make a flooring of logs. To prevent sticking your feet into the fire, a damp log is placed near the entrance (the support log is placed at a distance of 1-1.5 meters from the fire) and reinforced with stakes or stones so that it does not roll off

Fire bed (controversial method)

Industrialists of the Far East use the following method of spending the night in the taiga in winter. Having chosen a place protected from the wind, they shovel the snow to the ground, clear a small area, make a large fire from thick resinous or dry trunks and warm the ground for 2 hours (during this time food is cooked and people have dinner). Then the ash is leveled, and the industrialists, having spread the skin, settle down in this place for the night, covered with a blanket. Almost all night, the warmth of the slowly cooling earth warms sleeping people. (I used this method, but only in the fall). It works in the fall, I don’t know about winter

Canopy reflector

First option:

stick sticks into the snowdrift and shovel snow on them. The snow bank will gradually begin to thaw and will look like a canopy. It will be warm between the fire and this makeshift canopy.

Second option:

Stick poles into the snow at an angle of 50 or 60 degrees, and hang a piece of polyethylene (raincoat, tent, awning) or any other fabric on the poles. Such a screen will reflect heat from the fire and a person will be warm both in front and behind

The downside of a canopy is that you can’t fully relax near it, but you can in a booth.

However, it should be noted that these methods of spending the night are applicable only in wooded areas!!!

Snow caves, pits, snow huts

In a treeless area, having a sleeping bag, you can spend the night in a snow hole dug in a snow drift or in a place where there is a deep layer of more or less compacted snow. The hole of the pit is protected with snow bricks, a piece of tarpaulin, etc. Such a snow pit can be dug for 1-2 people. For a group with a large number of participants, if the density of the snow allows, you can dig a hole like a wolf pit, which is covered on top with skis and a piece of tarpaulin.

You can easily spend the night in the mountains V snow cave dug - in a snowdrift with dense snow or V slope of hard firn. The ceiling in the cave is made dome-shaped, then when the primus is lit and the snow thaws, water does not drip from the ceiling. If the depth of the snowdrift allows, it is advisable to make the entrance tunnel longer and communicating with the cave through a hole in the floor of the latter. With this design of the entrance, warm air, heated by the breath of people, accumulates in the cave.

It is very warm to sleep in a snow cave, having a kerosene stove and sleeping bags. Such caves are often used by climbers during difficult ascents. Snow caves were used with great success for overnight stays and housing during Wegener's polar expedition in Greenland.

General rules for constructing snow shelters and choosing a site for construction

• Do not dig a snow cave near a steep (snow-covered) slope; an avalanche may occur.
• Do not make a shelter at the base of loose rocks or overhanging snow cornices
• You cannot set up a bivouac near dry and rotten trees (the wind can knock them down)
• In a snow shelter, the warmer the temperature outside (at zero, the shelter may “leak”) Protect the ceiling inside with polyethylene
• The smaller the volume inside the cave, the warmer it is (heating a large volume with breathing is problematic)
• It is better to build a snow hole or den alone, while taking off your outer clothing

Open type shelter

1.Snow trench

Such a shelter is dug out of snow at least 1.5 meters deep. You can use skis, a bowl, or a piece of plywood as a shovel.

Very good shelter is obtained in ravines and hollows. Essentially, it’s just a slot-like hole one and a half or 2 meters deep and covered on top with fabric or polyethylene. The roof is made from tree trunks and branches or skis and sticks (if you are in a treeless area). The roof can be sprinkled with snow on top (additional thermal insulation).

In the taiga, you can build a similar cave near the trunk of a fluffy spruce or cedar. The paws will serve as a kind of roof. Clear the area of ​​snow around the trunk in a circle. In such an improvised hut you can even make a small fire

2.Snow pit

This structure is very reminiscent of a hole. As a rule, it consists of a pit tunnel and the hole itself. The minimum thickness of the ceiling should be 20-30 cm, otherwise it may collapse. If the snow is loose, then it is almost impossible to build a snow pit.

Closed shelters

1.Snow cave

A snow cave digs into the slope. Remove excess clothing so that it does not get wet, fasten all cuffs, buttons, and zippers.

Classic snow cave

Cave construction algorithm

1. First a hole is made
2. A narrow tunnel is being dug
3. The end of the tunnel is expanded upward to the size you need

Non-classical snow cave type 1

Non-classical snow cave type 2

2. Snow den

The snow den digs around windbreaks and rubble in the taiga; there are very large accumulations of snow there. A snow den is dug in the same way as a cave.

Single snow hole

In cases of extreme necessity, you can wait out the night in a single burrow of small thickness. You need to dig a hole so that the dead-end side is raised. In such a room it will be less comfortable than in an ordinary hole, but warmer than on the street. The point is that the person who spends the night in it should be above the entrance level and be in an air cushion, the bottom is lined with a layer spruce branches or sticks.

If your feet are frostbitten or you have lost your shoes, you can spend the night in such a hole with your feet inward and cover your head with plastic or wrap it in fabric.

Single hole

Snow hut

50 cm and 50-90 cm long. These snow “bricks” must be strong enough to support their own weight when carried and laid on edge.

It is recommended to build the hut on a flat snowdrift with a depth of at least 1 m. Using 2 ski poles tied to the ends of the twine, a circle is drawn in the snow. The diameter of the circle depends on the number of inhabitants of the future hut and is determined in each specific case by simple calculations. The first block is laid on its edge, slightly trimming its inner edge with a knife so that the block tilts inwards (if a large snow hut is being built, the angle of inclination should be small; for a small hut a rather significant inclination is required).

The remaining blocks are placed next to the first block, close to one another, along the line of the circle. Once the first tier is laid, the second can be started in several ways.

The simplest of them is to make a diagonal cut from the top edge of one of the blocks of the first tier to the bottom edge of the same one. blocks or a second or third block of snow (Fig. construction of hut a1)

The first block of the second tier is placed in the resulting recess so that its end is adjacent to the block of the lower tier. Then, close to the first block of the second tier, the second block of the same tier is laid, etc., continuing the construction as if in a spiral. The blocks of each subsequent tier should be inclined inward at a large angle, i.e., a more or less regular dome should be obtained. When the dome is ready, a tunnel is dug through the snowdrift leading to the hut and ending with a kind of hatch in the floor of the latter. With this design of the entrance, the warm air accumulating in the hut (people's breath, primus stove) does not allow cold air from the tunnel hatch to penetrate inside the hut (Fig. construction of hut-d).

Drawing "building a hut"

I think that building a hut in the middle zone is very labor-intensive.

If a snow hut is being built by 4 people, then usually one cuts out the blocks, the 2nd carries and serves them, the 3rd builds the hut from the inside, and the 4th follows the builder outside and fills the gaps left between the blocks with snow.

After building the hut, it is recommended to light a primus stove inside, heat the air to +20-21° and, having made a hole in the dome, freeze the hut for several minutes. After such an operation, the walls of the hut inside are covered with a shiny crust of ice, as a result of which, in case of accidental contact with the walls, snow does not fall onto the floor of the hut. The hole in the dome is sealed with snow (only a small hole is left for ventilation).

Villamur Stefanson and his two comrades built their first hut within 3 hours. After some training to build a snow hut for 3-4 people. (hut diameter 3 m, height 2 m) took 45 minutes.

In a snow hut you can sleep in a sleeping bag without waking up from the cold when the outside temperature is very low. If you light a primus or fat lamp inside the igloo, it becomes very warm here, and you can sleep covered only with a blanket. Such a hut is indispensable when setting up a long-term bivouac (especially in treeless areas and in the mountains). If during a winter hike it is planned to build a snow hut at each bivouac, then the group should practice building it long before the hike.

You can make a snow hut of a simple design, but it will be colder than an igloo. Snow “bricks” for this hut are prepared in the same way as for the “igloo”; then they are made into a square-shaped structure, which is covered on top with a piece of tarpaulin or blankets (see building a hut). You can also put skis on top and pile snow bricks on them. All cracks between the blocks are sealed with snow. It is warmer to sleep in such a hut than in a tent.

When spending the night in the snow, it is always very important to thoroughly dry your equipment (socks, ski suit, boots) before going to bed. At night, boots should be taken off and hidden in a sleeping bag, and warm (fur) sleeping socks should be put on your feet, which every member of the group should have on a long ski trip in winter.

If you have to spend the night without sleeping bags and you can’t make a fire due to lack of fuel, you need to build a snow hut or dig a snow hole, cave, etc., take off your frozen boots, put on dry woolen socks or fur socks and put your feet in a backpack. You can't sleep in this position.

To set up a winter bivouac you should have a snow shovel

Long-burning fires (winter fires, fires for overnight stays)

I have previously written an article about anyone interested in taking a look.

Making a fire requires a lot of skill and dexterity; This is a kind of skill that needs to be learned so that even in winter you can breed it without problems.

In winter, before making a fire, they use a shovel or skis to rake the snow to the ground, otherwise the fire will sink deeper and deeper into the snow, eventually forming a deep snow hole. Or they make a fire on a base of logs.

Taiga fire(rice. bonfires-d) is made up of whole or cut into two pieces of wood 2.5-3 m long (cedar, resinous spruce, dead wood, etc.). The firewood is stacked either lengthwise (long fire) or in an irregular well. The fire produces a large hot flame and a lot of coals; used for cooking food, drying clothes, and for overnight stays for a large group in summer and winter around the fire. The taiga fire is a long-lasting fire.

"American fireplace". This type of fire is a very long lasting fire. Thick short logs with chopped off knots and small branches are stacked as shown in ( rice. Bonfires - e.) The fire is lit below, at the base of the “slide”. As it burns, the lower log gradually crumbles into coals, the next log slides into its place, etc. The “American Bonfire” is used by Canadian trappers when spending the night near a campfire in summer and winter. It is inconvenient to cook food over such a fire. Only 1-2 people can spend the night near such a fire.

Nodya (Fig. bonfires- and ) is a very long-lasting fire (the Finnish Rakotum fire belongs to the same type). It is necessary to find suitable fuel for the node, otherwise it will burn very poorly. The best fuel for it is dead spruce or pine, resinous spruce, cedar, and in the Ussuri region - elm. Fir, which an inexperienced tourist can mix with spruce, is not suitable for Nodi. The spruce must be cut into logs 2.5 - 3 m long, 2. of them are stacked on top of each other and secured with pegs, and the third, serving as a regulator, is applied to the side. The node is ignited by placing kindling between the logs of the node regulator, or gutters are cut down along the entire length of both logs, which form a kind of tunnel when the logs are laid on top of each other. Here! along the entire length of the trench, place kindling from birch bark, dry moss, incendiary sticks (see below) and make a fire.

Nodya gradually flares up and burns evenly for several hours, giving great heat. If you need to reduce the heat, the regulator log moves back a little. Nodya is used for overnight accommodation by taiga hunters of Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, Siberia, etc. Near the Nodya you can spend the night well for 2-3 people by building a reflective barrier of branches or skis and an awning, so that sleeping people are between the barrier and the Nodya

A node can be made up of 3-4 logs. In this case, it must be kindled with a fire built at the base of the log wall of the node.

Surviving in winter without a tent

Salt from Artemovsk, Altai salt, overseas Himalayan salt... Many people have heard about salt rooms, or halochambers, today. They are usually installed in sanatoriums, in the offices of reputable companies and even in expensive restaurants. Contractors are not against working with the private sector. But the cost of a halo chamber sometimes turns out to be more expensive than the house itself. In our material we will tell you how to make a salt cave with your own hands - and not go broke.

Before we start construction, let's figure it out: why do we need a halo chamber in the house at all and won't it do more harm than good?

Let's start with the fact that salt in an amount of 0.9% is found both in the blood and in tissue fluids. It has been proven that without this mineral a person can live no more than 10-11 days.

But the main purpose of halochambers is, of course, not to replenish salt reserves in the body, but to treat and prevent the respiratory tract. The salt aerosol, which is essentially the air present there, effectively destroys harmful microflora, and at the same time cleans up the sputum that has formed. Therefore, if you suffer from bronchitis, sinusitis, pharyngitis, or even just caught a common acute respiratory infection, feel free to go for salt treatments.

Among other things, halotherapy polishes burnt skin tissue, thereby promoting its rejuvenation.

Finally, another benefit of salt air is its ability to minimize nicotine addiction. So everyone who wants to quit smoking, read on carefully!

Now about the imaginary harm. There is an opinion that salt is deposited in joints, kidneys and other organs, being the root cause of unpleasant diseases. We declare - these are tales. Calcium urate and calcium oxalate, phosphates and urethrates act as stones and deposits, and the NaCl compound has nothing to do with them.

If we have convinced you of the need to have your own salt room, you can get to work.

Selecting a room

First of all, a mine needs a room. It would be nice, of course, to build a whole building, but you can get by with a separate room.

The following requirements must be met.
A basement or semi-basement is ideal for a salt mine. As a last resort, the first floor.
The room must be dry, initially devoid of water, electricity and sewerage communications. If they are present, they will have to be dismantled.
The floor must be concrete. If there is none, the boards must be disassembled and a full screed made. Salt is a heavy thing; it will crush any other coating.
The height of the room is in the range of 2.4-3 m.

Material selection

Before delving into the features of this or that salt, a few words about the technologies for its use. Thus, the walls in the halochamber can be made of salt blocks or simply “plastered” with it. The second method, it would seem, is not so troublesome, but in fact it is short-lived. Such a salt finish will require annual and rather expensive restoration, so we will not consider this option.

Now about the material itself.

The most popular product today is pink Himalayan salt. One brick from it costs about 600-700 rubles on the construction market. In addition, the seller will ask you for another four thousand for each bag of a special adhesive mixture. Do you feel the scope?

The truth is that salt will always remain salt. And the mineral mined in the Himalayas will differ from its analogue from Artemovsk only in price.

It is best to buy salt directly from the manufacturer - the same “Artemsol”, “Bassol”, “Iletsksol” or “Tyretsky salt mine” - it doesn’t matter. Contacts of these enterprises are easy to find on the Internet; the problem may only be with the volume of purchases. These giants are used to selling goods by the wagonload, and you will only need 5-10 tons. But here it all depends on your communication skills; you can always reach an agreement. If diplomacy is not your thing, buy salt from resellers; there are plenty of advertisements on the Internet.

To work, you will need fins no more than half a meter wide, but no less than 15-20 cm, and also salt crumbs with a fraction of 1-1.5 mm.

Construction works

It all starts with the preparatory stage: dismantle all the finishing, if there is any, of course. You should end up with a bare concrete floor and similar brick walls. In this case, the windows should be blocked, and the doorway should be expanded upward by 15-20 cm.

If the walls are cold, they must be insulated. Moreover, it is better to do this from the side of the facade.

The next stage is the organization of ventilation ducts. It is advisable to lay them out of brick and place them in the corners of the room. Under no circumstances use metal pipes or corrugations for ventilation; salt will quickly pick up the “keys” to them. The windows in the supply ducts are made at a height of one and a half meters from the floor, but the hood should be located right under the ceiling.

Now about waterproofing. Dry mixtures like CERESIT CR 65 are best suited for work. Clean the walls and floor from dust and moisten them with water. Then dilute the contents of the bag to a creamy mass and, using a spray bottle, apply waterproofing to the surfaces to be treated with a layer of 2 mm. Work can be continued only after it has hardened, that is, no earlier than after 7 days.

After the waterproofing has dried, proceed to arranging the floor. It is laid out from blocks of salt 15 cm high. If you have more massive stones, you can always trim them to the required thickness with a grinder. Just take the circle that is on concrete.

The process itself is somewhat reminiscent of laying paving slabs. The blocks are placed on a “prance” made of moistened salt. Its moisture level is enough to make “snowballs”, but when compressed, water does not come out. All cracks between the blocks are clogged with the same solution.

It is not necessary to wait until such a base dries. Lay out the floor - and take on the walls. The first row is laid out from the largest sections with a fraction of 500×500 mm. The seat is first leveled with moistened salt.

Yes, it’s only in the diagram that all the blocks are smooth and even, but in reality their shape is far from ideal. To give them a working look, you will have to do a fair amount of work with a chisel and grinder.

Before laying the next row, level the seat again with a salt trowel and lay the blocks, but of a smaller fraction. Select minerals in such a way that a slope of 80-60° is formed. The higher the ceiling, the greater the slope.

Starting from the second row, the brick wall with salt must be tied with wooden crutches. This is done in meter increments, and the dressing should be laid at different angles in both horizontal and vertical planes.

Do not forget that all masonry joints are compacted with wet salt. Very soon it will crystallize and connect the entire chamber into one solid monolith.

If during the work it was not possible to close a brick somewhere, it’s okay. The “cave” does not have to be 100% salt. Bare areas can be lined with the same sandstone, it will be very beautiful. We also suggest not to “salt” the ceiling. The spray is short-lived, so it is much easier to line it with wooden clapboard. Just use copper nails in your work; metal ones won’t last long.

And the last nuance. All work should be carried out at a temperature of 26-28 ° C (useful for rapid crystallization of salt). Therefore, you will need a heat gun or a good heater.

In the end it should look something like this.

There is very little left. Install ventilation in the finished shafts, pour a 3-5 centimeter layer of salt on the floor and place comfortable sun loungers around the room. We remind you: during procedures, only supply ventilation should be turned on. A complete replacement of air is done after the session.

As you can see, there is nothing about creating a halo chamber that you could pay a million for. It’s quite possible to carry out all the processes yourself. Most importantly, remember about protective equipment. When working with salt, you must wear gloves, a respirator and safety glasses.

Well, now it's time to test the salt mine. Turn on some nice music and enjoy!

One of the most original buildings in the garden, which you don’t often see on a summer cottage, is a grotto. Typically, the grotto is complemented by monolithic terraces and areas of the garden that have differences in height. The attractiveness of the grotto will inspire you to create this building with your own hands!

Information about the grotto

The grotto is a shallow cave with a vaulted ceiling. Building in the form of a grotto will make your summer cottage more mysterious and give it an antique character.

In addition to its decorative function, the grotto also serves as a place of solitude, as well as a place to relax and observe the overall picture of the garden.

To create a grotto you won’t need a lot of money or special construction skills. It is enough to have bricklaying skills and have creative thinking and imagination that will help you decorate this garden building in an original way.

In order to make a grotto with your own hands, you need to stock up on a considerable amount of natural stone of various shapes and sizes. The most popular stones for creating a grotto are sandstone, dolomite and granite.

Instructions for creating a grotto with your own hands

In order to quickly and efficiently create a grotto, you must follow the following step-by-step instructions:

Step 1- Choosing a location for the grotto

When choosing a place for a grotto, it is necessary to take into account that the view from the grotto should cover the entire garden area, and the view of the grotto immediately catches the eyes of the guests.

You can also add some mystery to the garden plot and hide the grotto in a walking area. Imagine, you are enjoying a walk through the garden and suddenly, behind the thicket of a vineyard or other climbing plant, you come across an inconspicuous entrance to a grotto.

If the grotto will serve as a place of solitude, it must also be placed with a view of the entire garden, but in an inconspicuous corner, so that guests would not even suspect its existence.

In general, as you can see, the placement of a grotto on a summer cottage depends solely on the preferences of the owners.

Step 2 – Decide on the shape and size of the grotto

In our example, we will use a grotto located in . The dimensions of the grotto will be slightly larger than the size of the retaining wall - this will give the grotto dominance in the composition. The shape of the grotto is a hemisphere.

Step 3 – Create the frame of the grotto

In order to move on to creating a grotto with your own hands, you must first make its frame. To do this, it is recommended to use cut boards or sheets of plywood. It is necessary that the grotto frame be able to withstand the weight of the stone that will be laid on top. You should also pay attention to the fact that the inner wall of the frame is the wall of the future cave, so it is desirable that the walls have a more or less appropriate shape. After the frame is constructed, a foundation (preferably strip) is poured along its perimeter, on which the stone structure will subsequently rest.

Step 4 – Laying the Stone

After the foundation has completely hardened, we begin laying the stone. To do this, we prepare a cement mortar (grade M500), the viscosity of which should resemble the consistency of sour cream. Before applying the solution, the stone must be moistened. Stone laying should be carried out at a rate of no more than 4 rows per day, so that the structure hardens well and does not deform under the weight of the overlying rows.

It should be noted that the design of the grotto consists of several layers of stone masonry. After laying the first layer, a mesh or reinforcement is laid on it and covered with mortar. To completely harden the structure, you need to take a break of 3-4 days.

After the solution has hardened, we proceed to laying the next layer of stones. This layer is the outer one (facing), so try to make its outline beautiful.

As soon as the structure of the grotto is laid out, we leave it alone for 3-4 days so that the solution completely hardens, after which we knock down the wooden frame located inside and level the walls of the cave (if there are protrusions of the solution, we chop them off).

Step 5 - Decorate the grotto

In order for the grotto to attract the attention of guests with its design, it is necessary to decorate it decoratively. To do this, it is recommended to use plants, flowerpots standing nearby, various garden figurines and other small architectural forms.

Inside the grotto, you can decorate the walls using a mosaic of colored glass or stone.

If the grotto is located in the depths of the soil on a slope, you can build an alpine slide on the surface of the building or implement another idea for the garden that you like.

The bottom of the grotto can be covered with pebbles or crushed stone, and the front part can be equipped with a wooden door.

In general, at this stage you should use your imagination and creative thinking as effectively as possible.

At this point, building a grotto with your own hands is considered complete. As you can see, there is nothing complicated in this process.

A cave or grotto can decorate the design of any garden or summer cottage. These are quite original and beautiful buildings. Their popularity has increased significantly recently. Caves (grottos) are built of any size. Moreover, despite the fact that some stone slabs for their construction can be quite heavy, the construction process itself is not as complicated as it might seem. We will tell you more about how to make a grotto with your own hands below.