Cheddar Gorge a tourist destination. In a 2005 poll of "Radio Times" readers, following its appearance on the 2005 television programme "Seven Natural Wonders", Cheddar Gorge was named as the second greatest natural wonder in Britain, surpassed only by Dan yr Ogof caves. The gorge attracts about 500,000 visitors per year. Cheddar is a gorge lying on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The maximum depth of the gorge is , with a near-vertical cliff-face to the south, and steep grassy slopes to the north. The B3135 road runs along the bottom of the gorge. The area is underlain by Black
Caves of the Mendip Hills in 1824, it was found to contain a great many animal bones which have been dated as about 80,000 years old. The earliest scientifically dated human cemetery in Britain was found at Aveline's Hole, in Burrington Combe. The human bone fragments it contained, from about 21 different individuals, are thought to be between roughly 10,200 and 10,400 years old. Archaeological evidence including pottery, flints, hearths, coins, burials and metalwork from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman eras have been found in many of the caves. A number of Mendip caves were found by miners, for example the