Named for the green algae that cover its walls,[3] the structure of the cave is strikingly different from inland systems; the cave is a flank margin cave (old mixing chambers at the edge of the fresh water lens with the sea water) with two well-defined levels apparently indicating two periods with differing sea levels.

The first known inhabitants of the caves were Arawak Indians who left pottery fragments and adzes.

[1] The filming of the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die, used the caves for villain Doctor Kananga's underground base beneath a cemetery on the fictional island of San Monique.

It is most memorable for being the location where Bond (played for the first time by Roger Moore) kills Kananga (played by Yaphet Kotto) by forcing him to swallow a bullet of compressed air, causing him to float up to the ceiling like a balloon and explode.

[4] Ian Fleming's original novel had the villain using the real-life Jamaican caves as part of his SMERSH-funding smuggling operation.