It is the largest cave in the world , with its own sheer rocky cliffs , jungle-like vegetation and climate . So it is no wonder photographer Ryan Deboodt , 31 , relied on a drone to capture footage showing the immense size of the Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam . The result is a spectacular video showcasing the dramatic topography inside the cave , which is 5.5 miles long , 650ft wide and 500ft tall . Opening with shots pan across the vast jungle-like vegetation and adventurers are traipsing through the cave are dwarfed by their immense surroundings . Ryan , originally from America but now living in Beijing , China , described the cave as like an extraterrestrial planet . He said : 'This was my third visit to Son Doong . It was actually last minute that I even decided to take the drone in with me . ' I was originally going in to the cave to collect three timelapse cameras I had in there for six months to document the flooding . ' The process took Ryan eight days to complete and he was required to take a lot of ropes , harnesses and safety equipment into the cave with him . The drone captures the staggering height of the cave and people in the images appear to be specks on the landscape . A time lapse shot captures a beam of sun light moving through the top of the cave over the course of a day . Outside shots of the cave show the magnitude of it and capture the grand scale of its reported 500ft . Tourists with a spare £1,800 ( $ 3,000 ) can take tours of the cave with a company called Oxalis . A team of more than 25 porters , safety experts and guides take the tour over six days . The journey to the cave takes a day and a half through dense uninhabited jungle , before you abseil 260ft down to its entrance . Tours must be booked in advance as there is a strict limit of 10 guests per departure . He said : 'Throughout the entire cave you have to be extra cautious , as something as simple as a twisted ankle can cause much grief and effort in order to get back out of the cave . ' Ryan explained that while he was within the cave he would n't have been surprised to have seen a dinosaur . He said : 'Being inside Son Doong is absolutely unreal . I felt tiny , insignificant . ' The cave was first discovered in 1991 , when a local farmer stumbled across it and sought shelter there from a storm . Before the chance discovery , it had remained undetected beneath the Annamite Mountains in a remote part of central Vietnam for millions of years . Unable to find the cave again on a repeat visit , the farmer gave up the hunt until he was approached by a group of cavers to help him find it . The colossal underground network of tunnels was discovered in 2009 and officially named the world 's largest cave . A natural staircase covered in greenery is captured up-close and explorers can be seen climbing them . The cave was first discovered in 1991 by a local farmer and is five times the size of Malaysia 's Deer Cave . A number of shots capture beams of sun light and the vast jungle-like vegetation that grows inside the cave . The name 'Son Doong ' cave means 'mountain river cave ' . It was created 2-5 million years ago by river water eroding away the limestone underneath the mountain Where the limestone was weak , the ceiling collapsed creating huge skylights . The mesmerising six-minute-long video presents the different parts of the underground world , from the harsh and jagged rocks to the lush greenery and the cave 's own lake and river . A timelapse shot captures the sun filtering through one of the many sinkholes which allows natural light in to illuminated the hidden underground world . Ryan Deboodt 's photography can be found on his website and Instagram page , and the original video can be viewed here . It is estimated that the cave was created around two-five million years ago by river water eroding limestone underneath a mountain .
Photographer records video of China 's Hang Son Doong cave using a drone to capture its colossal size . The travellers in the cave appear as specks within the huge landscape dominated by jungle and rocky outcrops . Hang Son Doong contains jungle-like vegetation , water and sheer cliffs and is the largest cave in the world .