Until the 1930s, there was a mill in front of Zhitolyub. Its owner said that once a young goatherd entered the entrance to the Dark Hole with her flock to rest. A kid got separated from the herd and she went inside to look for it. They waited a long time for her to return to the village, but for 11 days there was no sign of her. On the twelfth day, near Karlukovo, shepherds heard a voice from the bottom of one of the karst pits. They lowered a rope and managed to pull out the young girl. She had a wounded head, hungry and thirsty after wandering through the darkness of the cave labyrinths for days. The inhabitants of Karlukovo also told the same story. According to them, thereafter the place where the girl was drawn was called ‘Maiden's Field’.
The karst spring ‘Zhitolyub’ is located at the foot of the Lakatnik Rocks, under the Temnata Dupka cave 8m above the level of the Iskar River. The spring is one of the largest karst springs in the country. Its flow rate varies from 80 to 1200 l/sec. The water springs from a small cave and flows towards the Iskar River. The water path is only 59 meters and that is why some scientists consider ‘Zhitolyub’ to be one of the shortest rivers in Bulgaria. The spring cave is part of the Temnata Dupka cave system. This has been proven by the coloring of the water of the underground river in Temnata Dupka, which hours later flows through Zhitolyub. Now the spring is captured with a small dam built at the entrance and part of the water is trapped in pipes. Zhitolyub ends with a small lake, which is a siphon. Divers have penetrated 38m inward at a depth of -3m before the gallery was blocked by a large stone. The length of the cave including the siphon is 86m.
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