Banán Pothole

Banán Pothole is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the area of the Aggtelek National Park. Together with the other caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst it has been part of the World Heritage since 1995. It was the fifth deepest pothole of the Hungarian part of the Lower Mountains. Its 45 m deep entrance shaft was the third deepest continuous cave shaft in the Hungarian part of the Lower Mountains. It is one of the six specially protected caves of Bódvaszilas.

Description

On the plateau of the Lower Mountains, east of the centre of Bódvaszilas, 117° from the peak of Vecsem-bükk at a distance of 470 m, and 250 m north of the Vecsembükki pothole, the cave entrance is located on the east side of a large sinkhole in a strictly protected area, near the bottom of the sinkhole. The sinkhole lies directly next to the Vecsembükki pothole mound and the entrance of Darázs-hole is in the sinkhole, as well as the entrance of Karácsony-pothole on the sinkhole’s rim. Some tourist maps mark the location of Banán-pothole with the name of the cave. Proceeding from the Vecsembükki pothole along the tourist trail marked with a yellow stripe, it is on the left side of the path. The vertical axis entrance of the pothole is a blasted, narrow, hard‑to‑notice fissure.

The cave's horizontal extent is 7.5 m. The cave is characterized by vertical passages. The sink consists of a 45 m deep entrance shaft, a 25 m deep parallel side shaft that connects to the entrance shaft at two points, and a 30 m high blind shaft. Drainage channels and dripstones can be observed in it. Its deepest point is located exactly beneath the entrance. At the bottom, where there used to be a seasonal small lake, sometimes a large pool also occurs. A fixed rope is placed in the blind shaft. Permission and rope‑technical equipment are required to view the cave. For the descent, it is recommended to use 50 m of rope, a screw‑type ear, two carabiners and a rope ring.

It was the 5th deepest sink of the Hungarian part of Lower Hill, after the Almási sink, the Vecsembük sink, the Szabó‑pallagi sink and the Rejtek sink. Its 45 m deep entrance shaft was the third deepest continuous cave shaft in the Hungarian part of Lower Hill, after the deepest continuous shafts of the Vecsembük sink and the Szabó‑pallagi sink.

The cave occurs in the literature under the names and designations 34 (Kósa 1992), Banánlyuk‑sink (Kósa 1964), Banánová propast (Vlk 2019), Komjáti VII. sink (Bertalan 1976), V/6 (Kósa 1964), V/11 (Kósa 1992) and V‑21 (Kósa 1992). The cave received the name Banana‑sink because its entrance fissure was banana‑shaped before the entrance was enlarged.

Research history

In 1961 the members of the Red Meteor Cave Research Department, who were shown the fissure by a forester, enlarged the banana‑shaped, impassably narrow entrance fissure by blasting. They could not explore it at the time due to lack of time. In August 1962 the department and the Petőfi Cave Research Group explored the cave and surveyed part of it. According to the department's report, the Banana‑sink is about 45 m deep. With this depth, the Banana‑sink is the 9th deepest among the sinks located on Lower Hill. The 1963 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin, in the report on the Petőfi Cave Research Group's 1962 activities, mentions that the Banana‑sink was partially surveyed to a depth of 39 m.

In the report published in the 1963 Caves and Karst Survey Bulletin, which deals with the activities of the Red Meteor Caving Section in 1962, it is stated that the cave is 39 m deep. In 1963 members of the Red Meteor Caving Group precisely measured the location of the entrance of the Banana sinkhole relative to the Vesszem-bükki lookout. According to the measurement, the sinkhole entrance is at 311° 00′, 760 m from the lookout. The study titled “On the Question of Sinkhole Formation” written by Attila Kósa in 1964 mentions the Banana sinkhole. The map included in the publication shows the geographical location of the cave.

On 3 April 1967, Éva Haász, Attila Kósa, Péter Simsa, Kinga Székely and Mária Varga surveyed the cave, after which Attila Kósa prepared, based on the survey, a three‑profile longitudinal map, two cross‑section maps and a plan map of the cave. The maps were drawn by Éva Haász. The exploration and description of the cave, together with the maps drawn in 1967 and three photographs, were published in the 1968 Caves and Karst journal. In 1972 Attila Walkovszky studied the daily pattern of air flow in the sinkhole. The maps of the sinkhole made in 1967 appeared in the guidebook edited by László Jakucs, published in 1975.

In a manuscript written by Bertalan Károly and completed in 1976, on card number 72 it reads that the Banán Shaft (V/6, Komjáti VII. sz. shaft) is located in Bódvaszilas, on the Alsó Hill, at an altitude of 505 m a.s.l. Its entrance was enlarged by blasting, which before the enlargement was banana-shaped. The cave is 6 m long and 45.3 m deep. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on 2 publications and 1 manuscript. According to the speleological field report made on 30 January 1977 and based on the exploration of November 1975, the vertical extent of the cave is 44.5 m. In a study written by Daniel Bajomi and published in the 1977 issue of Karszt és Barlang, there is a map of Hungary showing the geographic locations of the biologically studied caves in Hungary. The map shows the geographic location of the Banán Shaft, which is under biological processing. The English-language version of the study was included in the special issue of the journal in 1977. In this study the map was also published, on which Banán Shaft is the name of the cave.