Árpád-kilátó Pothole

The Árpád-kilátói-zsomboly is a cave located in the Budai Landscape Protection Zone of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in District II of Budapest.

Description

It opens on the DK side of the top of Látó Hill, about 100 m ENE from the Árpád-kilátó, on a sloping hilltop and in a forest. Its entrance is near the blue‑band marked tourist trail of the National Blue Trail. The entrance is natural, vertical, axis‑oriented, circular and 1.8 m wide. It was formed in Upper Eocene limestone by corrosion and dissolution below the karst water level. Tectonics also played a role in its formation. It originated in the upper, fractured, broken, epikarst zone of the Szépvölgyi Limestone Formation.

It consists practically of a single circular‑section vertical shaft. From the shaft a roughly 1 m diameter spherical chamber branches off. In the spherical chamber a non‑specific, faded, pea‑sized bark can be observed. The thoroughly surveyed cave has a length of 4.5 m, a depth of 3.5 m, a vertical extent of 3.5 m and a horizontal extent of 4.5 m. Its bottom usually contains a lot of municipal waste. The cave passage is accessible with basic equipment and easy climbing, but a permit is required for visiting.

In the literature it occurs as Árpád-kilátói-zsomboly (Fleck, Vid 1982), Árpádkilátói-zsomboly (Bertalan 1976), Látóhegyi forráskürtő (Bertalan 1976), Miklós-kürtő (Kraus 1983), a name derived from the discoverer Oláh Miklós, also as Miklós kürtő (Thuróczy 1964) and Miklóskürtő (Csók 1959). In 1995 the cave was called Árpád-kilátói-zsomboly for the first time in the literature (Leél‑Őssy 1995).

Research History

The cave was discovered on 20 April 1958 by Oláh Miklós. At the time of discovery the cave was 2 m deep, with an upper diameter of 1–1.2 m and a lower diameter of 2 m, and was later explored to a depth of 4.5 m by the City Plan Cave Research Group. In 1959 members of the City Plan Builders Sports Club Cave Research Group investigated and cleared it, also deepening it by blasting. In 1962 the group again cleared it, and film footage was made of part of the work. The book published in 1964 titled “Along the National Blue Trail Route” contains a brief description, stating a depth of about 4 m. In 1969 Attila Kiss, József Kovács and Sándor Kraus cleared the filled cavity, reaching a depth of 4.3 m, where layer plates bounded the bottom, but a tube completely filled with clay led further down.

In 1971 the Kinizsi Cave Exploration Group, although it had not obtained a research permit for the Miklós-kürtő on Látó Hill for 1971, still carried out work in it, mainly with the aim of facilitating a later larger investigation. In the manuscript completed by Bertalan Károly in 1976 it can be read that the other name of the Árpád-kilátó pothole is Látóhegyi source shaft, and that it is located in the Buda Hills, on Látó Hill, also known as Gugger Hill, in the 2nd district of Budapest. The entrance is located 140 m southeast of the summit of Látó Hill, about 80 m from the Árpád‑kilátó, on the east‑north side. Its entrance is a shaft‑shaped pit with an average cross‑section of 2 m. Its length is 2 m, and the blocked cave was excavated to a depth of about 4 m. It is probably a hot‑water shaft, filled with debris. The part of the manuscript concerning the cave was written based on a manuscript.

On 9 February 1980 it was measured to a depth of about 4 m. In the autumn of 1981 members of the Óbuda Kinizsi Cave Exploration Group found it during a field walk and thought it was an unknown cave. It was described as 3 m deep. In 1982 the Óbuda Szeszgyár Kinizsi Sports Club Cave Exploration Group had a research permit for the cave investigation. In 1982 the Rózsadomb Kinizsi Cave Exploration and Mountaineering Sports Association cleaned it again and excavated it to a depth of 6 m, where the stalactite narrowed.

The sport association's 1982 report reads that many years before the 1981 discovery, researchers unknown to them had already broken it up. According to the final report written by Sándor Kraus that appeared in the 1983 MKBT report, the cave was broken into in the early 1960s by members of the Városterv Építők Sportköre Barlangkutató Csoport, and the cavity was later cleared several times, but has since become filled with trash again. In the 1984 book *Magyarország barlangjai* the national cave list includes the cave in the Budai Mountains under the name Árpád-kilátói-zsomboly with the variant name Látóhegyi forráskürtő. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographical location of the caves of the Dunazug Mountains, indicating the cave's geographical position.

The information brochure of the 1987 MKBT central research camp contains a diagram showing that some of the Buda caves, e.g., Árpád-kilátói-zsomboly, are located at a certain tszf. altitude and the vertical extent of these caves. The study written by Szabolcs Leél-Őssy published in the 1995 *Földtani Közlöny* describes the cave. The site plan in the publication illustrates the cave's geographical location. According to the description, the vertical, 2 m diameter and 4–5 m deep shaft was formed in the Szépvölgyi Limestone, and there is a clay fill at the bottom. On August 30 2004 Attila Gazda prepared the cave's registration sheet.