A new visitor attraction will launch later this year in Iceland in the shape of IceCave – a network of man-made tunnels and spaces running inside the Langjökull Glacier.

IceCave will be one of the largest man-made structures in the world, stretching 300m (984ft) back into the glacier and a further 30m (98ft) below the surface.

In the works since 2010, the US$2.5m (E2.1m, £1.6m) development will allow visitors to see ‘blue ice’. Each year the ice cap is covered in roughly six metres of fresh snow, which is is melted by the sun on one side and compacted by the weight on snow on the other. That compacted snow turns to ice, which over time becomes denser until it becomes the blue ice formed only under these specific conditions.

Backed by leading pension fund investors and the Icelandair Group, the project has engaged a number of experts, including one of Iceland’s leading geophysicists and glacial experts, Ari Trausti, plus a team of specialist construction workers. Iceland-based engineering and consulting company EFLA is digging the tunnels in the glacier.

Visitors will embark on a weather-dependent adventure between March and October on an ex-NATO, eight wheel drive missile launcher, converted to transport up to 40 people at a time to the glacier. Tours will last between 2.5 and 14 hours. @icecaveiceland