Bába-völgy No 3 Sinkhole Cave

The Bába-völgy 3rd sinkhole cave is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Aggtelek National Park area. Together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst it has been part of the World Heritage since 1995. It is the longest cave of the Bába Valley. It is one of the six specially protected caves of Bódvaszilas.

Description

North of the center of Szögliget, about three kilometres away, on the southern part of the Lower Mountain, in the Bába Valley, in a forest, at the bottom of a periodically active, well developed sinkhole with several swallow holes, the Bába-völgy 3rd sinkhole cave opens. Approximately 500 metres from the entrance of the Bába-völgy 2nd sinkhole cave, to the northeast, at the intersection of the blue‑band marked tourist trail of the National Blue Trail and the red‑band marked tourist trail, about 20–30 metres from the branching point, is the reinforced concrete vertical entrance oriented along the axis. The cave’s location is indicated on the newly issued tourist maps.

The developing sinkhole has a large water‑catchment area of about 200,000 square metres. The water flowing into the sinkhole emerges at the Acskó spring, but the hydrological system of the sinkhole cave also includes, proven by water‑level measurements, the Hangyás sink, the Frank cave, the Acskóréti sink and the Csörgő spring cave.

It formed in Middle Triassic Gutenstein dolomite. Its horizontal extent is 41 metres and at its end a narrow, wet, draughty meander prevents further passage exploration. In the cave’s small stream with low water flow, cave-dwelling blind fish live in several places. A bat was seen that entered the terminal meander and then exited from the meander. It contains a chamber 18 metres long, on average 6 metres wide and 4 metres high. The cave passage is walkable with basic equipment, it can be viewed as a non‑closed cave with a permit. It is currently not visitable because it has collapsed. It is a specially protected cave because of its large extent and the presence of cave-dwelling blind fish, as well as its speleothem wealth and hydrological importance.

The part of the cave called Mocsár received its name because of the many muds found there. In the literature the cave appears under the names Bába‑völgy 3. water sink (Dénes 1969), Bába‑völgy 3. sz. water sink (Dénes 1969), Bábavölgy 3.sz. water sink (Dénes 1964), Bába‑völgy III.sz. water‑sink cave (Nyerges 1994), Bába‑völgy III.sz water‑sink cave (Vlk 2019), Bába‑völgy 3. sz water‑sink cave (Kordos 1984) and Bába‑völgy 3.sz. water‑sink cave (Persányi 2006).

Research history

In May 1957 György Dénes discovered the water sink. In August 1957 the clay water sink was examined by members of the ÉM Kinizsi Cave Research Group led by Balázs Dénes and they thought that its opening would be feasible and easy, although no draught was detected at the sink openings. At that time they believed that the water disappearing in the sink reappears at the Lower Spring of Acskó and the Upper Spring of Acskó.

In the travel guide titled Aggtelek and its surroundings, published in 1961, it is written that Dénes György demonstrated the hydrological connection between the water sink and the Borz spring in 1958. On March 24, 1964, due to a hydrological connection study, the water sink was painted with copper sulfide, but the emergence of the marked water was not observed anywhere, and therefore Dénes György only assumed that the sink discharges its water into the Bába spring in the summer of 1959 in the Bába‑valley No 2 water sink, based on the results of fluorescent water painting carried out by Dénes György. On March 22, 1964, leakage was observed in the water sink. On March 26, 1964, 60 l, on the 27th 230 l and on the 28th 100 l of water were absorbed per minute.

According to the study published by Hazslinszky Tamás in 1965, the water sink has a large catchment area and the development of the sink hole can be observed to become increasingly distinct. The speleological field report prepared on August 1, 1965 describes it as a degenerated, periodically active water sink located in Szögliget. In 1966, members of the Kinizsi Barlank Exploration Group carried out inspection tours and minor maintenance work in the Bába‑valley sinks. On February 22, 1969, the hydrological connection of the water sink with the Acskó spring was demonstrated using sodium fluorescein. The water did not appear in the Borz spring.

In the manuscript written by Károly Bertalan, completed in 1976, entry number 69 mentions that the D3 water sink of Bába Valley is located at Szögliget, on the Lower Hill. The developing water sink has a large catchment area. It is located 300 m east of the D2 water sink cave of Bába Valley. The entry describing the D3 water sink cave of Bába Valley was written based on the publication by Tamás Hazslinszky. At the 1982 field meeting of the Hungarian Karst and Cave Research Society, the cave was one of the surface hiking destinations. In the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984, the cave appears in the national cave list under the name Bába Valley D3 water sink cave, located in the Aggtelek Karst. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographical location of caves in the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains, indicating the cave’s location.

In the summer of 1993 the cave was explored by the MAFC Caving Group to a length of 87.26 m, a depth of 10.5 m, a height of 0.7 m, and a vertical extent of 11.2 m. On 4–5 September 1993 Zsolt Németh and István Torda surveyed the cave with benchmark points, after which Zsolt Németh used the survey to draw the cave’s plan map. After the exploration the cave entrance collapsed. In 1994 the group, with the help of István Szenthe, concreted the cave entrance to make access safe. In that year the removal of the collapse labeled III/a in Bába Valley began, in the hope of gaining access to passages beyond the terminal passage of the Bába Valley D3 water sink cave. The Payoff Issue of the MKBT Bulletin from May–June 1994 indicates that the map of Lower Hill released for sale does not show the Bába Valley D3 water sink cave.